Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1892-07-07

Y Is u DO DltHSullLtT llNStlclStn IMAM That
which clings to the pretty riddle:
As was going To ST. Ives
met man with seven wives.
Each wife had seyon SACKS;
zach sack had seven eats:
Each cat Ind seven kits;
Kits, cats sacks and Wives
HOW many wore there going to st. Ives?
4 So deep and lasting are the impressions
| OF childhood, that us | tramped around
\ the southern reach Of ST. Ives BAY from
1.-THE pretty hamlet of ST. Earth, found
myself unconsciously scanning the high
l. way FAR ahead for this same wicked old
allow who had puzzled the heads of mil
ons of little folk. But he was not to be
Zen any more than the kits, cats, sacks
|nd wives" are TO be taken into account
IN tho olden riddle.
In truth, no man, woman or child was
iisible upon the white and circling high
way. st. Earth nestled there silent and
apparently deserted against the copse and
,he hillside. The tide was out in the bay
a few fshermens' boats rocked idly beside
mossy old piers. Long reaches of sand
showed here and there shining and
brown, like the backs of huge marine
monsters. Gulls wheeled lazily above
Land and sea fowl chartered in the cir
cling marsh edges, or dug in the sand and
oo2e. Only TO the north, through the
III rift between the headlands, was there
single sign of life. On the sapphire blue
81 OF the Irish sea there were two far, white
"a sails
But knew the ancient city lay behind
the huge headland, and quickening my
u pace soon stood at its sel-iace and its
highest activity. Here the highway tum-
1bles into one of the oldest old towns in all
Tpuropc. No wonder that l.onduncrS are
| coming this to them, tremendous journey
oil 80 miles for summer lettering, and the
grand prOmOnotories behind the town are
filling up with brilliant terraces; or that
artists swarm to the remote place for its
bits of antique i'll architecture, its quaint
groupings Of fisher folk and its outreach-
ings of wild and Glorious Cornish coast
4 Gray and old as is this Cornish fisher
town, but two bits of extreme antiquity
v remain. Just in the rear of the White
Hart Inn, by the wharfside, is huge pile
of greenish slate rock. liult upon this
rock, which forms its basement is u tiny
ancient stone structure known as earn
u Glaze House. 1t was the stronghold of
smuEi ing freebooting family in Queen
Annt time and the myriad weird fisher
and 4 l.laring legends of st. Ives have
nearly all had their origin in. or bear some
reference to, this grewsone old structure.
The parish church, built straight above
A the harbOredgc, its east window sprayed
1 with the. foam of the wild northern tenn
l pests which often lash the harbor furiously,
| was built in the IL years between lil0 and
L 142b, on the site of an Oldcn structure
founded by Saint lvo a Persian bishop,
I who came over from Ireland in the ninth
century to preach thegospel to the Cornish
4 BritonS
Some stone carvings and most beauti-
Il ful and curious font of the old st. lvo
chapel are still preserved. Perhaps the
II quaintest carvings i'll England are to be
II found i'll the present church. They were
the work of the then village blacksmith,
NJ "a handve and devoute man." who carved
\ the oak of the benches and choir stalls
not emitting to carve the forge the bel
lows, hammer and nails, and pincerS of
his own sturdy craft, lie threw in fair
supply of Tudor roses, monks and angels,
but, as Saints Andrew and Peter are APP
propriatc patrons of the church where
countless thousands of fisher folk have
worshipped, the good smith also put them
INTO every conceivable beneticent attitude,
md, us if to intensity their protection of
y he town of st. Ives and its people, also
lNTove fishes, saints and arabesqlles into
most generous and prnfuse relationship
If these wood carvings are curious stud
seS some of those in stone are equally out
( landlsh There are stone grotesques whose
| equals in strange and meaningless hide
| business can hardly be found elsewhere in
Europe. Seven represent mocking, leering
faces of men and beasts. Two are distend.
ing their mouths with their fingers and
protruding their tongues. One is most
horrible figure of an ape; and another
wears Il fools cap of the period.
The stranger will be impressed with the
extraordinary elevation of the soil of the
iiny churchyard. When the place was
irst quite filled with the dead, the burial
place was covered over with several feet Of
sand, and lnterment went ON anew, Three
times this was done; when it was iinalN
found that TO have repeated the process!
would have been to bury the church itself
when cemetery was secured upon tn,
heights.
history, tradition and legend have
carved some grim pictures upon the din
background of the past i'll this old Cornish
fisher town. One historical fact will b,
sufficiently illustrative. In the Cornisl
uprising of 1919, its object being the rrsto
ration Of the Catholic religion, to which
Corinthians remained greatly attached
long after the Reformation, John PAYNE
Portrieve of st. Ives, was one of the in
ferior leaders. After the defeat of tn
Cornish, Sir Anthony Kingston, with
royal commission, was seeking out ant
furnishing the rebels. He hung the mayo
Of Bodmin before his own door. st. Ives
Portrlcye received Sir Anthony hnmbl,
and prepared great dinner in his homo
ut the venerable George and Dragon,
still standing in Market Square.
During. the dinner the POnrieve hear
the sound of haminering outside and bein
disturbed was quoted by Sir Anthony witt
the remark that they were only about t
hang q rebel. Dinner over, history re
lates, the commissioner invited the POI
tfieye outside to inspect the galows.
What say you, Master Purtricvc2
quoth Sir Anthony. SIS yun gibbet dull
furnished for the hanging Of traitor n
"All seems ready, ant please YOU" wa
the prompt reply.
"1hen,h said the commissioner, turnn
to a man.atarms, secure Master Payn
and hang him straightway, for such is tn
protectors plcasurem
Master Payne was hung straightwaN
but the Cornish. who are Cets like Iii
Celtic Irish and Celtic Welsh unpleasant
remember these little after dinner tests q
English protectors and kings
Great was the olden fame of st. Ives a
metropolis OF fish and fishermen. 1t
Xsull the most important OF all Cornis
fishing ports. Five thousand folk liz
here on what is harvested from the deeI
FOR thousand years Or more, fruI
father to son, from mother to dauEhte
the line has remained unbrOken, hs
steadily increased, and so narrow is ii
HE horizon Of all these fishermen an
families that not a score of them, it is sale
Fever see other English land than the hill
and headlands of st. Ives bay, save whe
ut sea in their own boats.
These boats are all two-masted, III,
fsailed. with round sterns, and range
tonnage from ~ to 30 tons. With con
plete outfits they cost from G300 to G65
between 600 and 700 men and youths al
employed the year round in fishing Du
NE the winter they engage III line lishin
. Tor conEer whiting and ling, also securii
lew cod. In March the spring maoker,
Ishlns begins, and tlIe ST. Ives men al
always found on their own grounds, froi
3oto oo miles northwest of 81. Ives in til