PENDENNIS CASTLE BESIEGED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY FORCES BY SEA AND LAND.

Walk behind Arwinnick, across the isthmus to the sea, and which must have cut off all communication between the garrison and the adjacent country. The brow of the hill was defended by a battery which seems to have been erected during this contest. The banks and ditch of this citadel still remain, though overgrown with bushes, and the situation was admirably calculated to command the isthmus, and to inspect the arrangements of an approaching force.

The garrison was soon reduced to a deplorable condition for want of provisions; and it was not until they were compelled by approaching famine, that Arundell would listen to any terms of capitulation. And although they had not sufficient provisions to last them twenty-four hours, the negociations were carried on with such spirit, that their real condition was never once suspected by the besiegers. It held out from April until the middle of August, 1646, and was the last fortress but one through all England that surrendered; and it then procured as advantageous terms as any other garrison had obtained during the war. This event put a period to the civil war in Cornwall. The Scilly Islands had already surrendered, soon after prince Charles had sailed for France.

The friends of Charles made many efforts in various parts, to restore him to his throne. But the vigilance of Cromwell and his adherents defeated every design. Cornwall bore its part in these ineffectual exertions; but nothing of importance resulted from them. In May 1648, some forces that had been raised in Cornwall with the forlorn expectation of re-establishing royalty, were defeated by Sir Hardress Waller, and with this defeat the hopes of the party for the present vanished. It was probably as a reward for this service, that Sir Hardress was appointed governor of Pendennis Castle; for during this year he was invested with this office.

In the autumn of the same year another attempt was made to rekindle the dying embers of departed royalty; and Sir John Berkeley and Colonel Slingsby were sent into the county to muster the friends of the Stuarts. But their attempts to instigate the Cornish to rise in arms were quickly defeated. The two emissaries were taken at the house of Colonel Trevanion, which was probably at Carhayes, and sent prisoners to Truro, so that this scheme also proved abortive.

In the year 1650, the Scilly Islands declared against parliament, being defended by a considerable body of fugitives, that had been collected together, both from England and Ireland. They were headed by one of the Godolphins, who held a command under Sir John Grenville, and strenuous efforts were made to preserve them. In 1651, the islands retained their spirit of opposition; and displayed their hostility against the Dutch admiral Van Tromp, who lay with his fleet before them, and declared himself ready to co-operate with the parliament in reducing them

THE SCILLY ISLANDS REDUCED TO OBEDIENCE BY A PARLIAMENTARY FLEET.

to obedience. But these were vain menaces. However, Sir George Ayscough with his fleet, and a considerable body of parliamentary forces, compelled them all to surrender, except St. Mary's, and this continued to hold out until June; when being forced to submit, Sir John Grenville was among the prisoners that fell into his hands.

From this period no attempts appear to have been made in Cornwall in favour of royalty, till by a kind of national consent Charles II. was called to the throne. Among the subsequent military exploits of the county, nothing memorable occurs. The Dutch indeed made an attempt to land some forces near Cawsand, in the year 1667; but these were soon compelled to re-embark. De Ruyter also made a similar attempt at Fowey; but he was obliged to abandon his enterprise.

CHAP. XII.

Lakes, Canals, Rivers, Harbours, and Wells.

SECTION I.

Lakes in Cornwall.-Dosmery Pool, Swan Pool, and the Loe Pool.

AS the rivers of Cornwall generally rise near that elevated ridge which runs from east to west in the middle of the county, and have only a small distance to proceed before they join the sea through the opening vallies, we have no reason to expect many lakes. They are accordingly few in number, and these few are of no considerable dimensions. To the obstructions which the sea presents we are indebted for the largest; and were it not for this circumstance, we can discover but one, in which the water rests within a permanent enclosure that nature has raised on every side. This lake is generally known by the name of Dosmery Pool, concerning which many strange and ridiculous tales have been circulated. This singular piece of water lies in the parish of St. Neot, about four miles north of the church. It is about fourteen miles from Looe on the south coast, and about the same distance from the projecting cliffs at St. Gennys on the northern channel. It seems to have been formed by the rain waters of the circumjacent hills, the declivities of which conduct the streams to the bed in which it appears. Mr. Carew gives the following description of this lake :

"In the midst of the wild moors in the hundred of Lesnewth, far from any dwelling or river, there lies a great standing water, called Dosmery Pool, about a mile or better in compass, fed by no perceived spring, neither having any avoidance, until of late certain tinners brought an adit therefrom. The country people held many strange conceits of this pool; as that it did ebb and flow, that it had a whirlpool in the midst thereof, and that a faggot once thrown into it, was taken up at Fowey Haven many miles distant. To try what truth rested in these reports, some gentlemen in the vicinity caused a boat and some nets to be carried thither overland; but the event did not answer their expectation. Fish they caught none, except a few eels upon their hooks. The pool proved to be no where more than a fathom and half deep, and for a great way it was exceedingly shallow."

LAKES IN CORNWALL.-DOSMERY POOL.-SWAN POOL.

This statement flatly contradicts the report that Leland has recorded, of its being fourteen or fifteen fathoms deep. "As to the ebbing and flowing of the water, it should seem to be grounded, partly upon the increase which the rain floods brought into it, from the bordering hills, (which perhaps gave also the name; for doz is to come, and maur, great) and the decrease occasioned by the next drought, and partly for that the winds do drive the waves to and fro upon the sandy banks, and thus the miracle of Dosmery Pool deceased." Dr. Borlase remarks, that the compound name "Doz-mer-uy imports the meeting, or coming together of the lake water."

Another lake, if it may be honoured with that appellation, lies in the hundred of Kirrier, about a mile and a half west of Falmouth. This has obtained the denomination of the Swan Pool; in all probability, from the swans which were originally kept in it by the Killigrews, who were lords of the soil. In Leland's time it was called Levine Prisklo, or Levine Pool. This pool, which is situated between the parishes of Budock and Falmouth, is not quite half a mile in length, and it is something less than a quarter of a mile wide. Its water is fresh, except in stormy weather, when the high tides overflow the bar of pebbles, sand, and · shingle, by which it is obstructed in its passage, and divided from the sea. The water in this pool is in general shallow, and produces no fish but eels, which are esteemed for their delicious flavour. In severe winters the surface of this lake is sometimes frozen over, sufficiently hard to invite the adventurous to skate upon it; and many lives have been lost there. A small rivulet descending into the vale, and a few tributary rills, supply it with water, and give variety to its dimensions, in proportion to the quantity they yield, and the obstructions which the surf presents on the sandy shore below.

The most considerable and most interesting lake in Cornwall is the Loe Pool, lying in an extensive vale, stretching southwards from Helston to the sea, from which it is separated by a wide bar of sand, in the hundred of Kirrier. In its ordinary dimensions, when not swelled by any particular inundation, it is about two miles long, and something more than a furlong wide, covering, by a measurement taken in 1771, when at the lowest, 163 acres of land. In its width there is a considerable irregularity, the water contracting or expanding with the projecting or receding banks and broken rocks with which it is surrounded.

On the western side the Loe Pool is bounded by the parish of Sithney, and on the east by the parishes of Wendron, Mawgan, and Gunwalloe. Its waters are furnished, chiefly by the river which Speed, Camden and Norden call the Cober, but for what reason they have not said. This river enters the vale at a stone bridge called St. John's, from a hospital which formerly stood near that spot, and

1

DESCRIPTION OF THE LOE POOL NEAR HELSTON.

of which some vestiges still remain, that was dedicated to St. John. It is about a mile below this bridge that the waters begin to feel the distant obstruction, and to cover the valley from side to side. Besides this river, the lake receives supplies from several small streams, which tend to augment its waters. On the western side the rivulets of Penventon and Penrose, and on the eastern side the streams at Nansloe, Degybma, and Carminow, flow into its bosom. The bar of sand and pebbles which thus prevents the combining streams from descending into the sea, is about a quarter of a mile in length. During the summer months the waters which begin to spread about a mile below St. John's Bridge, are considerably below the level of the bar; through the sands of which they ooze imperceptibly away, to join the ocean; by which means the quantity that is obstructed preserves a general equilibrium. But in the winter season the whole valley is sometimes so completely covered, that the swelling lake extends above the bridge, so as to obstruct the wheels of the town mills, which are still higher up, and to prevent them from working. During these seasons the water rises to the brim of the bar at the opposite extremity, and the whole vale presents one vast inundation. The increasing water swelling this lake in every direction, stretches still further up into Penrose Creek on the western side, and Carminow Creek on the eastern side of the lake, and increases the depth of the whole expanse in the same proportion. The depth of the water varies considerably in different parts, being in the summer from ten to twenty, twenty-two, and twenty-six feet. The deepest part is about a furlong and half from the bar, at a place called the Black Rock. From this place the depth gradually declines, from the rising of the sand towards the bar, which forms part of its bed, till at last it terminates in a steep acclivity towards the brim. The cliffs which encircle this lake are of a moderate height; " and betwixt them," says Dr. Borlase, "there is a very distinct echo. But the same circumstances which amuse and please in a calm, frighten in a tempest; and when the south and south-west winds from Mount's Bay get in between the steep sides of the lake, their roaring is heard at a great distance, and is thought to presage stormy weather."* To these winds the same author supposes the valley in which the lake is formed, gives vent when they beat upon the cliff in all their fury; and by so doing increase the force and velocity of them; so that this contributes to raise the bar which lies across the creek.

When the water of this lake rises to such a height as to obstruct the working of the town and Carminow mills, the mayor of Helston, by an ancient custom, applies

* Borlase's Natural History of Cornwall, p. 51.- -At a place called the Echo Tree, near the old park wall,

a remarkable echo, where the sound is said to be distinctly reverberated fourteen different times.