IX.

CORNISH NAMES.

(Communicated by T. Hingston, Esq. M.D.)

It is commonly understood, that those places in Cornwall, which have the word _San_ or _Saint_ as the antecedent component of their names, are so denominated after some martyr or confessor of early times. This is a very obvious and indisputable fact. But it is by no means certain, that in every instance of the kind, the saint conferred his name on the place: for in many cases, the converse seems to have been practised; and contrary to what is generally imagined, I believe that the place bestowed its name on the saint. Thus, for example, in _St. Stephen_, and _St. Allan_, two saints are equally commemorated; but Stephen, by his own name, which he possessed independently of accidental circumstances; and Allan, by a name, superseding that which he had received at his baptism, and subsequently derived from the place of his retirement.

The want of this distinction has occasioned unspeakable labour and perplexity in the investigation of Cornish antiquities. Books and documents have been examined, and enquiries made in vain, after names, of which no record exists; and which, even in their own day, were scarcely known beyond the narrow district, in which they were venerated. In some instances, indeed, the objects of such researches might have been illustrious before their retirement; but if, in that case, their acts and sufferings were chronicled, the history was in effect abolished, when their identity was lost in the assumption of a new name.

Thus many of our early saints took refuge here, from the persecutions, to which the Christian faith was exposed in Ireland; and their history has been chiefly sought in the hagiographies of that country. But the greater number of them, on coming into Cornwall, complied with this custom, common, indeed, with all men at that time, of changing the name with the residence; and accordingly, instead of that, by which they had been formerly known, and might have been recorded, they adopted or received another, as choice or accident determined their settlement. Hence we have _St. Hy_, or _St. Iä_, the Island-saint; _St. Uny_, (or perhaps more correctly _St. Unan_) the Down-saint; _St. Dennis_, the Hill-saint; _St. Allan_, the Moor-saint.

But not only have these, and similar appellations, been erroneously regarded as the baptismal and proper names of the saints, whom they commemorate; but the accidental corruption of some of them has led to still greater mistakes; and from the mere coincidence of sound, the saint whose memory was to be preserved, has been identified with some other person, for whom that honour could not have been intended. Thus the town of St. I’s, or with the genitive at full length, as it was commonly written, St. Ies, has for many generations been called St. Ives, though the correct form was frequently used till the close of the seventeenth century. In consequence of this corruption, the place has been said to have derived its name from some bishop Ivo, either the Persian, who gave his name to St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire, or the celebrated Ivo, bishop of Chartres. But St. I was a female from Ireland.

The case of St. Dennis seems to be of the same kind; though in that instance the error is not owing to a corruption of the name, but to the similarity of the sound. St. Dennis signifies the _Saint on the Hill_, or more strictly, the _Hill-saint_; and the church stands at this day on the summit of a hill. But the good man, who lived there, has been considered the same person as St. Dionysius, or St. Dennis, the areopagite.

I cannot help suspecting, that some error of this sort has occurred in the case of Paul-parish near Penzance, which is reported to have taken its name from St. Paul de Leon. Now that portion of the Mount’s bay, by which this parish is bounded on the east, is called _The Lake_; and this lake, which might have been correctly so denominated in ancient times, is at the foot of the hill, on which the present church stands; and it is, therefore, probable that some man of eminent piety once resided near it. In that case, he was called the _Lake-saint_, which rendered into Cornish, becomes _St. Pol_. For this reason, I believe that the common account is wholly untrue; and that, as in many other instances, the name of the saint, and through him, of the parish, originated entirely in a local accident.

I may state here, that some parishes have a popular name, arising not unfrequently from very trifling circumstances; and this name has, in some cases, entirely superseded the more legitimate denomination, under which the church was consecrated and registered. Thus, to give one example, the parish at the Lizard is called _Landuwednac_, which signifies the _Black-and-white-church_. This appellation was suggested by the peculiar appearance of the church and tower, which are built of black and white stones, arranged alternately, in the manner of a chessboard.

Amongst the names of our Cornish towns, there are three remarkable above the rest for having been very diligently examined, and very little understood. Upon these it may be proper to make a few observations.

Of _Truro_ Tonkin says, that ‘it is so called from its three principal streets; for _Tri_, three, and _Ru_, a street, have been turned to _Truro_ merely _euphoniæ gratia_.’ Tonkin ought to have suspected, that _Tri_, occurring as the first syllable in the name of a town, was not likely to mean _three_, because _Tri_ or _Tre_ signifies a dwelling place, or an assemblage of dwellings, and therefore, a _town_. He might have supposed too, that the place was called _Truro_, before its three principal streets were built, or designed; since it does not appear to have ever had any other name, and we cannot believe, that it was so denominated by anticipation. For in those rude times, towns were not commonly laid out upon a definite plan: but the houses were erected according to the taste or convenience of the builders; and the streets seem to have been formed, almost as accident might determine.

But Whitaker says, that Tonkin’s etymology, which was adopted from Camden, is altogether absurd; and he consequently undertakes to find a better. For this purpose he assumes, that Truro takes its name from its castle. Now he imagines, that the castle was denominated _Trevereu_, and that the name was subsequently familiarized to _Treuro_. In that way, he thinks, the etymon at once presents itself; and we are accordingly informed, that _Truro_ signifies the castle on the _Uro_. This, however, is to take a course the reverse of that pursued by etymologists in general: for they seek the meaning of a word in its primitive form, but Mr. Whitaker in its corruption. There is also another objection, which may be considered equally conclusive; for, as Mr. Polwhele says, we have no such river in Cornwall as the _Uro_.

Mr. Polwhele himself has proposed a third explanation, which, however ingenious, I think equally unsatisfactory. He suggests, that Truro may be a town of Roman origin; and that the name is a corruption of _Trevorou_, the _town-on-the-ways_. But if it were so, we should not be wholly without any evidence of the fact. Proof would be found in some obscure tradition, some historical record, or some local circumstance; and the name itself, upon which alone this opinion is grounded, would be more completely consistent with it. When the Romans founded a town, it was not their custom to give it a name exhibiting no trace of their own language; but _Trúro_ is unquestionably Cornish; and besides that, as persons skilled in such matters would easily see, it is no very natural corruption of _Trevórou_. Polwh. Hist. of Cornwall, vol. I, p. 189; vol. II, p. 215.

Yet that it is a corruption, is certain. In the charter granted by Reginald Fitzroy, in the reign of Henry II. the name of the town is written _Trivereu_. It is of this word, therefore, that _Truro_ is a corruption; and if we can determine its signification, we shall ascertain the etymon of _Truro_. Now nothing can be better known, than that _Rivereu_, or _Riverô_, in the ancient language of this county, had the same meaning as the kindred word _rivers_, in English: and with regard to the initial _T_, it can be scarcely necessary to say, that it stands for _Tre_, or its archaic form _Te_, a _town_. The word, therefore, in the primitive and proper mode of writing it, is _Trerivero_; and consequently, the name as it appears in Reginald’s charter, is itself an example of that liability to change, by which the same word was subsequently converted to _Truro_. But the alteration in that case was so slight, that the composition of the word was scarcely obscured; and so natural, that its corruption could not have been prevented. For it was hardly possible in common speech to avoid the elision, which turns _Trerívero_ into _Trívero_; as this again has been contracted to _Trúro_. The word _Truro_, then, signifies the _Town-on-the-rivers_, or as we should now say, _Riverton_. And this interpretation is illustrated and confirmed by the local peculiarities: for the town is intersected by two rivers, which originally were its boundaries――the Cenion on the south, and the Allan on the east.

With respect to _Marazion_ or _Marketjew_, I need not examine what has been said about Sion, Jerusalem, and the Jews; for it is wholly unfounded and absurd. _Marghas_, or in its softer form _Maras_, signifies a _market_, and _Iän_, of or belonging to an _island_. Hence _Marasían_ means the _Island-market_. This name is derived from St. Michael’s Mount, which is in fact an island; and to its monastery the market belonged. _Marghasjew_, as it is called in Elizabeth’s charter, or as we now speak, _Marketjew_, signifies _Thursday-market_: the charter, by which the privilege of a market was granted to the monks by Robert, earl of Cornwall, having appointed it to be kept on the _fifth_ day of the week. In Domesday the town is called _Tremarastol_, which signifies the _Market-town-of-the-monastery_. These three names, therefore, mutually explain one another; and their signification is confirmed by the historical facts.

_Penzance_ is said to signify “the _Saint’s head_, or rather the _Head of the bay_.” Polwh. Hist. of Cornwall, vol. ii. p. 39. I believe that Mr. Polwhele quotes this from Tonkin. But did Tonkin himself expect that his readers would be satisfied with an etymology so indeterminate and contradictory? Yet this is the usual mode of explaining Cornish words. Camden says, that _Penzance_, or as he more correctly spells it, _Pensans_, means the _Head of the sands_. But Whitaker declares this to be unworthy of Camden; and he therefore gives us an improved interpretation of his own. For this purpose he reads Tonkin backwards; and as that writer renders _Pensans_ the _Head of the bay_, Whitaker asserts it to be the _Bay of the Head_! And this is unworthy of Whitaker. He says, the phrase is equivalent to _Mount’s bay_. But it was never imagined before, that the Cornish word _Pen_ could signify such an object as St. Michael’s Mount; and still less can it be supposed that a town would be denominated a _Bay_. Yet the real signification of _Pensans_ lay at his feet; for nothing can be more obvious and easy. The name is derived both from the little chapel of St. Anthony, which he himself describes, and from the point of land, on which that chapel stood. For there the town took its beginning; and there, of course, it found a name――that of the place which it occupied. Now a _point of land_ was in Cornish called _Pen_; and when it chanced to be distinguished by the erection of a chapel, it would naturally be denominated _sacred_ or _holy_, which was expressed by the word _san_, or if it was a terminal syllable, _sans_. Hence _Pensans_ signifies _Holy-head_; and in allusion to this, John the Baptist’s head is in the town-arms.

But Mr. Whitaker would not have committed this error, if he had been heedful of a principle, observed in the composition of Cornish words, which can never be safely overlooked, in any attempt to investigate their meaning. The ancient names of places in Cornwall mostly consist of two substantive nouns, one of which has the force of an adjective, and qualifies the other: as _Penrose_, _Penpraze_, _Polwhele_. The component parts of such words have always been treated as if they had been associated by caprice, or accident; and the same elements have been represented as adjectives or substantives indifferently, according to the fancy or convenience of the interpreter.

But in truth, the ingredients of all these compounds are combined and distinguished by a settled rule. It is generally supposed, that in all instances the word used substantively precedes that which is employed adjectively. In many cases, however, it does not: and as, therefore, the qualifying noun cannot with certainty be discovered by its position, they who suppose it to occupy uniformly the second place, can be right only by chance; and we are consequently to look for some other mark, by which it may be easily and invariably known. That mark is the _accent_. Thus we say _Pensáns_: and so, if we admit, what Mr. Whitaker supposes, that _Pen_ may signify a _hill_, and _sans_ a _bay_, the word in that case would mean the _Bay-hill_, and not as he says, the _Hill-bay_.

But as this accent lives only in common speech, and the peculiarities of the English manner have already considerably disturbed it, those who have occasion to write any Cornish words, and especially the cultivators of our history and antiquities, should always mark the accented syllable: for there is no other way of making this rule of interpretation available; and of preventing perplexities for the time to come, still greater than those, which have already existed. But besides the natural and inevitable tendency of the predominant English to change the pronunciation of Cornish words, there is a kind of whim or fashion amongst some, who know nothing of these things, by which the corruption is wilfully hastened; and while they confidently say _Pénrose_, _Pénprase_, and _Nánkivel_, they presume to correct those, who with more knowledge or less affectation, are accustomed to speak otherwise.

APPENDIX.