CHAPTER XXXIII LELANT, BRUNNION, DING DONG MINE, NANCLEDREA, ROGER'S TOWER, CHYSAUSTER, LANYON QUOIT LELA ELANT lies two and a half miles south-east of St. Ives, among the sand-banks which line the southern shore of St. Ives Bay. The village is pretty, the little gardens in front of the cottages being full of flowers, which bloom here with nearly subtropical luxuriance. The church is approached by a long avenue of trees, and is certainly admirably placed for artistic effect. Just before reaching the edifice, on the left-hand side, is an old mounting-block of four steps at the door of a house which in former times was an inn, where persons coming to divine service from a distance could stable their horses and find refreshment, and then, mounting the steps, get on horseback and so home. The church contains considerable Norman remains—an entire arch, pier, and half-pier, forming the second bay on the north side of the nave. The springing of a second arch to the east is to be seen on the south side. In the graveyard around the church is a tall, plain, embossed old cross, 6 feet 4 inches high; and in the new cemetery adjoining the churchyard is another old cross displaying a much weather-worn crucifixion on one side. There is still another in this cemetery with a cross next the church, and on the reverse an even more weather-worn figure representing the crucifixion, 3 feet high. On the right side of the churchyard on entering is an old Celtic cross, lying prone on the ground, doubtless having been used as a tombstone. The entrance-gate has a stone seat on either side, but is without the usual stepping-stone stile, and the stones are of granite and black slag. The south porch is interesting. The outer door has a round-headed arch. The inner doorway is of the late Perpendicular date. The bases of the arch on the south side are carved on two sides with a conventional lily, an estoile, and a four-leaved flower, each within a circle. Over the outer door of this porch is a Perpendicular canopied niche, designed to hold the effigy of a saint (probably the patron saint Ewinus). If such ever were there, it was removed, for the niche is now occupied by a sundial. This dial is of copper, and in the angle stands a crowned skeleton holding a dart and an hour-glass. The evidence is pretty conclusive that Lelant was once the centre of a much more densely populated parish than now. The sand has been steadily encroaching all along this coast, and making inland places of what were formerly seaports and flourishing towns. Padstow is another example of this process now in operation. The naturalist Ray, writing in 1662, describes the church as "almost quite covered with sand blown up by the wind." Halliwell says there is a tradition that underneath these sands is buried the castle of Theodoria, King of Cornwall, who beheaded the Irish missionary saints. The glebe consists, according to Lysons, of "fifty acres, mostly sand-hills." Old Lelant is said to have been covered within a short space of time by vast sand-drifts. Planting Arundo arenaria has arrested the fluidity of the sand and done much to prevent its invading the land further. Fields and farm-houses have been buried to the depth of many feet in some places, and Lelant Church was barely saved. Norden says Lelant was "somtyme a haven towne, but now of late decayed by reason of the sande which has choaked the harbour and buried much of the lands and howses; many devises they use to prevent the obsorpation of the churche." Great smuggling used to take place at Lelant, and it is a known fact that the church was often full of French brandy stored there by smugglers, who considered the sacred edifice a very safe hiding-place, because no one in those days ever went into it except on Sundays. To give some idea of the character and magnitude of the smuggling trade, I may just refer to an official statement of the naval force belonging to the smugglers on the western coast only, as communicated in a Treasury letter of January 20th, 1785: 66 Stag, lugger, 90 tons, 30 men, all provided with small arms. Happy-go-Lucky, lugger, 80 tons, 35 men, with small arms. 66 66 Happy-go-Lucky, cutter, 100 tons, 14 guns, 30 men. Glory, shallop, 70 tons, 20 men, small arms. "Cutter, name unknown, 120 tons, 16 guns, 4-pounders, 40 men. "Sweepstakes, lugger, 250 tons, 26 guns, 12- and 9pounders, 80 men; with numerous boats, 30 to 40 feet in length, calculated to row from 8 to 12 oars.' Not less audacity was displayed by their confederates on shore. For example, a man named Carter carried on a wholesale smuggling business at a cave on the eastern side of Mount's Bay, where he had a range, nominally of fish-cellars, but well known to be wine and spirit stores. As a blind, he kept a public-house, with the head of the King of Prussia for a sign. From this circumstance he was known as the King of Prussia. He had nothing to fear from the revenue officers in the neighbourhood, who were either directly in league with him, or deterred from attempting a seizure by knowing what a force he could assemble to the rescue. To guard the coast he actually had the audacity to construct a battery, which he mounted with long 6-pounders. The Fairy, sloop-of-war, was fired upon when she stood in to examine it, and as she could not safely approach near enough to bear her broadside with effect, she was obliged to send her boats on shore to destroy it. The remains of the battery are still visible, and the spot retains the name of King of Prussia's Cove. Lord Exmouth, then a post-captain on half-pay, in April, 1786, chased a well-known smuggler named Wellard, who commanded an armed lugger of 14 guns, the Happy-goLucky (a favourite name with the craft). Wellard had been outlawed by name, and it was his avowed determination never to be taken alive. Lord Exmouth surprised the smuggler at anchor near Mullion Island in the Mount's Bay, but she cut her cable and made sail to the westward. At thirty minutes past eight the Hawk brought her to action and engaged her for three-quarters of an hour, when the Lark came up, and crossing her stern so close as to carry away her outrigger, raked her with an eighteen-pounder loaded with grape and canister, which killed Wellard and the chief mate and wounded twelve of the crew. Then ranging alongside, the Lark fired the rest of her broadside and the outlaw submitted. It is worth recording that these vessels in the contraband trade did also a business in game-cocks. When the Happygo-Lucky was taken possession of, some of these birds were actually fighting on deck, their coops having been destroyed in the action which had just taken place.1 But the story does not end there. The prize was carried into Falmouth, where the severely wounded were lodged in sick-quarters in the town and the rest of the prisoners confined in Pendennis Castle. An attempt at rescue being apprehended, and the civil power being deemed unequal to escort them to the county gaol, the Commander-in-Chief, by direction of the Treasury, ordered a company of soldiers from Plymouth for that purpose. Before the troops arrived the prisoners broke out of the castle and joined a strong body of their friends outside, who carried off all the wounded from the town except one, who was too ill to be removed. This man was afterwards lodged in the county gaol, but a county prison not being deemed secure in this case, he was removed to Newgate by a writ of habeas corpus, and tried at the Old Bailey. He declared Wellard had held a pistol to his head to compel him to fight, "and now," urged his counsel," you would hang the poor fellow for his involuntary compliance!" The jury, influenced by the plea and more probably by the consideration that the chief criminals had already expiated their offence with their lives, and that the severe wounds of the prisoner were sufficient punishment, acquitted him. This Wellard was a Dover man, and the same name is still to be found at St. Margaret's Bay, four miles from that Cinque Port. On a slate tablet in the church of Lelant to members of 1 Life of Admiral Viscount Exmouth, by Edward Osler (1835). |