OLD FOWEY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 125, 28 May 1936, Page 9

OLD FOWEY

CAPITAL OF ENGLAND TRADITION AND SOME FACTS WHERE HISTORY BIDES There is a legend that Fuwey was the capital of England before London was thought of (says a writer iu the Melbourne Age). How true that is it would be very difficult to tell. Fowey, which fciir Arthur Quillet-Couch, the novellist immortadised as “I'roy” in his “Annals of Troy Town,” is situated on the east voast of Cornwall, on an exquisite small harbour, and many of its residents, including “Q” himself, live in lovely homes, front the water and have their back entrances on to the roadway. The castle which guards the village, however, stands at the head of the harbour, and was ready, in bygone times, to hold watch and ward over the little community. It was built on an eminence, with the village church nestling in its protection, and overlooks the townhhip. Fowey is very, very’ old. The Phoenicians traded in the vicinity for tin and porphyry—the Bible mentions their expeditions—and “Place” (as the •castle is named) has a h.U! built of porphyry, which is a pink', marble-like stone, and within the hall it is polished smooth, and without it glutens in its natural state. This cold, barc-looking hall cost £60,000 to build, ->ut the then squire, an L.L.D., believed it to be his duty to spend of every pound he had fourteen shillings in labour for his tenants and dependants. Perhaps had other land owners had the same idea there would now be less unemployment trouble. Famous Clay The district is famous nowadays for its chin.Y clay or kaolin, which is a fine, almost impalpable powder, nearly pure white, very soft and slightly greasy. It absorbs mpistore readily, and when wet is easily moulded, therefore it is used in the manufacture of porcelain and pottery, and the absence of any iron in the clay results, after firing, in a puie white article. Before the war Germany was the chief customer for Cornish china *clay. It is also used in the preparation of “Sizes” for smooth-faced papers, and for loading cheap cotton goods. It is moreover, a constituent of many water colours, paints, pigments, anil powders. Perhaps this has something (apart from its scenic beauty) to do with the fact that St. ives further down the coast on the opposite side, is a favourite resort for artists. The pure clay is prepared by stirring up the crude material with water, then allowing it to settle, after which it is dug out. and dried over hot flues. Once the, Foyens raised forty-seven ships, and it was one of the “gallants” who sailed out to combat Jean Doree. a Genoese •corsair in the sei vice of the French King—assailed him. captured him. and clapped him under his own hatches. The balladists of lhe time made a song of it —the John Dory. ‘ ‘lnvincible” The Foyen galleys were felt to be invincible, and the Gallants became rich and proud and misenievous, and naturally called down on themselves reprisals. And in 1456 the French made a raid but were beaten off with the help of the then Lady of “Place,” who ordered that her men climb the battlements and strip the guttering therefrom and heat it. Then she and her maidens poured the boiling lead on to the invaders.

When there was a lack of foreign ioe to fight, these happy pirates made themselves a nuisance to their own countrymen, and they trailed their coats, or rather “refused to veil their bonnets” (take in their topsails), when passing at the summons of Rye and Winchelsea. This was apparently an intolerable insult, and their aggrieved neighbours sailed out and joined issue, but the Foyens not only put them to but silenced one town, and carried off the other’s chain to hang across Fowey Harbour as a “protection against marauders.” The ruined blockhouses—witness of the great days—between which this chain us c d to hang —are still standing. So haughty and unbridled grew the Gallants that when King Edward IV sent a message that he was “ at peace with his brother of France, and the gallants must abstain from attacking, plundering and sinking French ships,” they cut off the messenger’s ears and sent back a very impertinent reply, which somewhat upset King Edward, and he felt constrained to discipline his loyal subjects of Fowey to their better enlightenment and discretion. And so their ships were seized (by a stratagem), and the great chain which protected the harbour from a. sault was removed and has never returned. A Quiet Time This did break their proud spirit, a.nd for the next couple of hundred years they kept fairly quiet, until they got a chance to have a slap at the Dut'ch, who sought to intercept eighty English merchant ships which were due to arrive from Virginia, on which occasion they were pleased to show what was what. Before that, of course, there was the Armada and the Ship Inn, once a private house, is said to commemorate the vessel, the Frances of Fowey, which did damage against the Spanish. During the civil war the Foyens seem to have gone Roundhead, and the Royalists and they gave one another some pretty battles; then later on, during the Napoleonic wais. they again showed their mettle. In more modern days Rovaltv has frequently visited quaint little Fowey with its charm and beaut and storied traditions, and “Place” has always done the entertaining. When I was a guest there my hostess showed me, still treasured, in the long drawing-room, the chair in which Queen Elizabeth once sat, and told me that when Queen Vic-