CORNWALL is the most westerly county in England, and stretches also farthest to the south. It is bounded on all sides by the sea, except on the east, where it meets Devonshire in a few places, and is separated from it, for the most part, by the river Tamar. From this last boundary its breadth is diminished till it terminates on the west at the Land’s End, in west longitude 6°, and on the south at the Lizard Point, in north latitude 49° 57' 30". assuming somewhat of the form of a cornucopia; its boundaries, the Bristol Channel on the north and the English Channel on the south, meeting in a point at the promontory on the west. It is situated in the diocese of Exeter, belongs to the western circuit, extends over 758,484 acres, or a little more than 1185 square miles, and contains nine hundreds, 201 parishes, twenty-three market towns, and, in 1811, 216,667 inhabitants, being nearly 183 to the square mile, or about one individual for every three acres and a half. The waste lands are about one fifth of the whole. The surface is very irregular, ascending and descending in rapid succession. The interior is high and generally unfertile, consisting for the most part of rugged heaths and moors; yet Brown Willy, the highest hill, is only 1868 feet above the level of the sea at low water. Some beautifully picturesque valleys intervene, richly diversified with corn, woods, coppices, orchards, rivulets, and verdant meadows. The stupendous rocks which form the great barriers against the ocean, particularly about the Land’s End and the Lizard, are fitted to inspire the mind with the most sublime conceptions; whilst the remains of an early age, military, civil, and religious, dispersed over the county, present, in striking contrast, the small scale on which the works of man are conducted, and the instability of human affairs. Throughout the higher lands the soil is a light black earth, intermixed with gravel, the detritus of the granite, or growarì, as it is here called; but a light loam, mixed with slaty matter, is the most prevalent on the gentle declivities and lower grounds. Clay is found in different places, of various quality. One kind is made into bricks, which are in request for furnaces, and another is much valued when formed into moulds for casting metals. For nine months in the year the wind blows from points between the west and south, bringing with it from the Atlantic vast bodies of clouds, which, being broken by the narrow ridge-like hills of the county, descend in frequent showers. Storms are more frequent and violent than in the inland parts of England, particularly from the north-west; but from this quarter the wind is generally dry, and brings fair weather. The climate is healthy, and there are numerous instances of longevity. Snow seldom lies for a few days. The myrtle, the bahn of Gilead, and many other tender plants and shrubs, live and thrive in the open air; yet the most hardy trees on the sea coast sustain much injury from the violence of the westerly wind, and the sea spray, which it drives with great force before it. The only shrub which seems to bear the sea air is the tamarisk, which grows to the height of ten or twelve feet in seven years, in situations most exposed to [7:7:367]the sea, forming an admirable shelter, and, as it bears cutting, might be useful also as a fence; yet it is destroyed by severe frosts. The cuttings by which it is propagated take root without difficulty. Till within these few years, the attempt to raise plantations was scarcely ever successful; but latterly, the pineaster being first planted as a shelter to the more tender trees, their appearance is more promising. The principal rivers are the Tamar, the Lyn-her, the Looe, the Fawy, the Camel or Alan, and the Fal. The Tamar is the most considerable. It rises on the summit of a moor in the parish of Morvinstow, the most northern in the county, and, taking a southerly direction, falls, along with several tributary streams, into the spacious basin called the Hamoaze, and issuing thence between Mount Edgecumbe and the Devil’s Point, unites with the waters of the Plym; and the conflux of these rivers with the sea forms the noble road for shipping named Plymouth Sound.

The landed property of Cornwall is very much divided, few estates producing a rent of more than L.3000, exclusive of the underground revenues, which are continually fluctuating. What are called the Duchy lands are far more extensive. The income derived from them, and from the duty on the coinage of tin, are the only parts unalienated of the immense hereditary revenues which formerly constituted an independent provision for the heir-apparent to the crown. This provision was originally made by Edward III. for his eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, whom he created Duke of Cornwall, with special limitation to the first begotten sons of him and his sons, kings of England for ever. The occupiers of these estates are lessees under the Dnke of Cornwall, and generally purchase an interest in the land during three lives, the consideration being a fine paid at the time of the grant, and also a reserved rent during the lease. A lease for three lives is common on church lands, and formerly was not unfrequent also on private estates. Leases at rack-rent seldom exceed fourteen years. The farms are in general very small, the rents, even in the most fertile parts, being only from L.30 to L.50, and, in the western and mining’ districts, they are chiefly cottage holdings. Agriculture, being but a subordinate concern here, is not generally pursued with much spirit and success; and the fines paid for their long leases deprive the farmers of that capital which should be invested in the improvement of the soil from year to year. Their best cattle are of the North Devon breed, which is much employed in labour. The native sheep of the county, now nearly extinct, was one of the worst descriptions in Britain. A great many different breeds have been introduced from other districts. The backs of horses or mules are used more frequently than carts or waggons as the means of transport. Barley, oats, and potatoes are grow n beyond the consumption, though the course of cropping is generally most exhausting; but a large quantity of wheat or flour is imported for the mining districts. In the neighbourhood of Penzance two crops of potatoes are commonly obtained every year. Sea-sand, sea-weed, and damaged pilchards, are used to a considerable extent as manure.

Cornwall has long been distinguished by its mineral treasures, of which the most considerable are tin and copper. The strata in which these metals are found extend from the Land’s End, in a direction from west to east, to the Dartmoor Hills, in Devonshire, and consist chiefly of granite and a variety of the grauwackc, here called killas. The chief seat of the mines now lies in the neighbourhood and to the westward of St Austel, from which place to the Land’s End the principal mines are to be found, extending along the northern coast, and keeping a breadth of about seven miles. These metals are commonly found in veins or fissures called lodes, of which the sides or walls do not always consist of the same substance, nor are they equally hard; for, though one side -of the fissure may be a dense stone,' the other is sometimes as soft as clay. Many lesser veins branch from the great lodes like the boughs of a tree, and at last terminate in threads. The indications of a vein of metal are varions, such as scattered fragments of ore, called shades, and the metallic taste of springs. Many rich lodes have been discovered by working drifts across the county, in the directions of north and south. From the course (if the metals being from west to east, the lode will thus be cut at right angles. See Mining. z Tin, the most important mineral of this county, is found collected and fixed, and also in a loose and dispersed form. In the former state, it is either in a lode, or a floor which is a horizontal layer of the ore; or interspersed in grains and small masses in the natural rock. The same lode that has continued perpendicular for several fathoms, is sometimes found to extend suddenly into a floor. In its dispersed form it is met with either in a pulverized state, in separate stones called shades, cr in a continued course of stones called a stream. These streams are of different breadths, seldom less than a fathom, and often scattered, though in different quantities, over the whole tract in which they are found. When several streams meet they frequently make a very rich floor. The principal stream work is at Carnon, between Truro and Penryn.

The most common state in which tin is found in this county is the calcifonn, the greater part of the ore being indurated or glass-like, and its most prevalent matrix is either an argillaceous or a siliceous substance, or a stone composed of both, called by the miners caple. None of the calcareous genus ever appears contiguous to the ore, except the fluors. The oxides of iron and arsenic are those with which the. tin is most frequently blended. When raised from the mine it is divided into as many shares or doles as there are lords and adventurers. Every mine possesses the privilege of having the ore distributed on the adjacent fields. It is generally pounded or stamped on the spot, and when it is small enough to pass through the holes of an iron grate fixed in one end of the box where the lifters work, it is carried by a small stream into pits, from which it is transferred into a large vat, washed, and rendered sufficiently clear for the smelting-house. The tin, when wrought into metal, is cast into blocks weighing from to cwt. each, which are not saleable till assayed by the proper officers, and stamped with the duchy seal. This is termed coining the tin. Since the reign of Henry VIII. the coinages have been held regularly four times annually, at Lady Day, Midsummer, Michaelmas, and Christmas, at the stannary towns of Launceston, Lostwithiel, Truro, and Helston, to which Penzance was added by Charles II. The annual produce of the tin mines is about 25,000 blocks, each worth ten guineas on an average.

Copper ores are found in great abundance and variety. Veins are frequently discovered in cliff’s that are laid bare by the sea. The most encouraging indication of a rich ore is an earthy ochreous stone, called gossan, which is of a reddish colour, and crumbles like the rust of iron. The ore does not lie at any particular depth, but it is a general rule, that, when copper is discovered in any fissure, the lode should be sunk upon, as it commonly proves best at some distance below the surface. When the metal has been properly refined, it is poured into oblong iron moulds, each containing about 150 lbs. weight. In the General View of the county, printed in 1794, the produce of all the copper mines is said to be about 40,000 tons of ore, yielding 4700 tons of copper, then worth L.8 a ton.
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Many other minerals have been found in this county, and much capital and labour have been employed in working some of them, without their yielding any adequate return; yet the success has been in a few instances so great, that new mines are opened as fast as the old ones are abandoned. We can only mention some of the more important. Lead mines are not numerous; and the kind of ore most frequently found is galena, or pure sulphuret of lead, which is met with both crystallized and in masses. The principal mines are Hucl Pool and Huel Rose, near Hcl-ston. Gold has been discovered, but not in such quantity as to warrant expensive operations to procure it. Silver is reported to have been obtained here in so large a quantity, in the reigns of Edward I. and Edward III., as materially to aid the warlike enterprises of these monarchs; but recent searches have not been so successful. Iron ores; sulphuret of iron, of the various colours of blue, green, purple, gold, silver, and copper, often intermixed with the copper lodes; bismuth, zinc, antimony, cobalt, arsenic, manganese, wolfram, menachanite, and molybdena or sulphuret of molybdenum, are all found here, most of them in considerable abundance. According to Phillips’ map of the mines in 1800, there were wrought at that time forty-five of copper, twenty-eight of tin, eighteen of copper and tin, two of lead, one of silver, one of lead and silver, one of copper and silver, one of copper and cobalt, one of tin and cobalt, and one of antimony.

Among the other fossil substances of this county, those that deserve to be mentioned for their value are slate, of which there is an excellent quality wrought near Tintagel, in the northern part of the county; a freestone, resembling the Portland and Bath stone, in the parishes of Carantoe and the lower St Colomb; and the celebrated soap-rock, between the Lizard and Mullion, used in the manufacture of porcelain, and rented by the proprietors of that establishment in Worcester. But the most important of these substances is what is called the Chinastone, found in the parish of St Stephen, near St Anstel, which forms a principal ingredient in all the Staffordshire pottery. It is a decomposed granite, the felspar of which has lost the property of fusibility. At Truro it has been manufactured into retorts and crucibles. To these may be added the Cornish diamonds, supposed to be the finest in England, consisting of beautifully transparent quartz, crystallized in six-sided pyramids; and a curious production, called the swimming stone, found in a copper mine near Redruth, the cellular structure of which renders it lighter than water.

Of the fish which frequent the Cornish coast, the pilchard is the most abundant and valuable. In size and form it differs but little from the common herring. Immense shoals appear during the summer and autumn, the first generally arriving at the Land’s End in the middle of July. The principal fisheries on the southern coast are in Mount’s Bay, and thence eastward to Devonshire; and, on the northern side, at St Ives. The pilehards are caught in nets called scenes, each of which is managed by three boats, containing from seventeen to twenty-four men, the largest kind being two hundred and twenty fathoms long, sixteen fathoms deep in the middle, and fourteen at each end. When brought on shore they are carried to storehouses, or cellars as they are termed, where the small and broken fish are picked out. They are then disposed in layers on the pavement of the cellar, salt being strewed between every layer. In this state they remain for about six weeks, after which they are taken up, washed, and placed in hogsheads, where, by means of a powerful lever, they are pressed so closely as, when turned out, to appear in a compact state. By this process the oil is extracted, which runs out of the casks through holes made for the purpose. Forty-eight hogsheads generally yield a tun of two hundred and fifty-two gallons. The blower or Jin fish, the grampus, the porpoise or sea-hog, the blue shark, and the seafox, visit the coasts of this county. Among the flat fish is a most uncommon one named the monk or angel fish, the turbot, the sea-adder, and the singular fish called the sunfish. Mackarel is caught in great plenty on the southern coast; also the red mullet, and the John Dory ; and conger cels of an extremely large size, weighing from sixty to a hundred and twenty pounds, are met with near the shores. Oysters are also found in great abundance.

The name of Cornwall is supposed by some to be compounded of Carn, signifying “a rock” in the British lan- l guage, and Gauls or Waals, the name which the Saxons gave to the Britons. Others, however, think it is derived from the Latin cornu, or the British kern, “a horn on account of its running out into the sea somewhat in the form of a horn. Hither the ancient Britons, as in Wales, retired on the intrusion of the Saxons, where they opposed their further conquests. In this part of the island theyform-ed a kingdom which existed for many years afterwards under different princes, amongst whom were Ambrosius Aurelius, and the justly celebrated Arthur; nor were they subdued till the middle of the seventh century, from which time Cornwall was considered as subject to the West Saxon kings, who began their sovereignty in 519, and continued it till 828, under eighteen sovereigns, the last of whom was the great Egbert, who subdued all the others, and, by uniting them, formed the kingdom of England, when this country was included in the county of Devon, then the ninth division. This accounts for Alfred’s not mentioning Cornwall, which, on forming the cireuits after the Norman conquest, was included in the western circuit. In 1337 Edward III. erected it into a dukedom, and invested with it Edward the Black Prince. But this, according to the express words of the grant, is limited to the first born son and heir, on which account Richard II. was created duke of Cornwall by charter. So was Henry V. by his father Henry IV. Henry VI. delivered the duchy to his son Prince Edward, and Edward IV.created his son Edward V. Duke of Cornwall, as did Henry VII. his son, afterwards Henry VIII. upon the death of his elder brother Arthur. James I.created his son Henry duke of Cornwall, which title on his decease came to his brother Charles. The eldest sons of succeeding kings have enjoyed this title by inheritance. These not only appoint the sheriff, but all writs, deeds, &c. are in their name, and not in the king’s; and they have also peculiar royalties and prerogatives distinct from the crown, for which they appoint officers.

The Cornish language is a dialect of that which, till thel Saxons came in, was common to all Britain, and more anciently to Ireland and Gaul; but the inhabitants of this island being dispersed before those conquests, and driven into Wales and Cornwall, and thence into Bretagne, the same language, for want of frequent intercourse, became differently pronounced and written, and in different degrees mixed with other languages. Hence arose the Welsh, the Cornish, and the Armorie dialects, the roots of which are so much alike that they are known and admitted by the inhabitants of either country; but the grammar is so varied that they cannot converse. The Cornish is reckoned the most pleasing of the three. It was spoken so generally here down to the reign of Henry VIII. that Dr John Moreman, vicar ofMynhinet, is said to have been the first who taught his parishioners the Lord’s prayer, the creed, and ten commandments, in English; and at the reformation the natives desired the service in English.

Cornwall returns four members to parliament.
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The following are the returns of the population for the years ending 1811, 1S21, and 1831.
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