paid each quarter-day out of their wages, and bestowed on the poore, or other godly vfe. Sir Robert Cecil's Letter. "My noble Knyght, "My thankes come wythe your papers and wholefome ftatutes for your fathers houfholde. I fhall, as, far as in me lieth, patterne the fame, and geue good heed for due obfervance thereof in my own ftate. Your father did muche affect fuche prudence; nor dothe his fonne leffe followe his faire fample, of worthe, learninge and honor. I fhall not faile to keepe your grace and favor quick and lively in the kinges breaste, as far as good difcretion guideth me, fo as not to hazard my own reputation for humble fuing, rather than bold and forward entreaties. You know all my former fteppes; good Knyght, refte content, and give heed to one that hath forrowde in the bright luftre of a courte, and gone heavily even on the beft feeminge faire grounde. 'Tis a great take to prove ones boneftye, and yet not Spoil ones fortune. You have tafted a little hereof in our bleffed queenes tyme, who was more than Your true friende, State of the ENGLISH PEERAGE, from 1603 to 1775 On the Acceffion of James I. the Peerage was; The Number in 1774 3 Princes 23 Dukes I Marquis 78 Earls 13 Viscounts 64 Barons 182 Created On the Expiration of the Cornish Lan- " and yet (which is to be mar guage. In a Letter from the Hon. Daines Barrington, Vice Prefident, S. A. to John Lloyd, Efq; F. S. A. From the Archæologia. DEAR SIR, March 31, 1773. HE precife time when any antient language ceafes to be fpoken by the inhabitants of a country feems to be interefting not only to the philologist, but to the antiquary; I fhall therefore define you would lay before the fociety the following particulars with regard to what I conceive to be the last fpark of the Cornish tongue. Leland made a moit complete tour through Cornwall in the reign of Henry VIII. and yet does not take notice of their fpeaking a language which he did not understand. My inference from this his filence is, that it then prevailed almost univerfally, juft as an English traveller into Wales would not now, in an account of his journey, inform his correfpondent, that Welsh was chiefly ufed in the principality. Carew published his furvey of Cornwall in 1602, and observes, that the Cornish was then going very faft into difufe, becaufe he takes notice, that most of the inhabitants" can no word of Cornish, "which was driven into the utter"moft skirts of the iniret. Norden's History of Cornwall is fuppofed by the editor to have been compiled about the year 1610; and informs us," that the Cornish lan"guage was chiefly used in the "western hundreds of the county, particularly Penrith and Kerrier; See Leland's Itin. Vol. II. and III. Page 281. veyled) though the husband and "wife, parents and children, maf"ter and fervants, doc mutually "communicate in their native lan guage, yet there is none of them, in a manner, but is able to con"verfe with a stranger in the Eng lih tongue, unless it be fome "obfcure people, who feldom con"fer with the better fort; but it "feemeth, however, that in a "few years the Cornish language "will be by little and little aban"doned §." In 1662 Cornwall was vifited by that great naturalist, Mr. Ray, who paid very particular attention to the language spoken in different parts of England, as appears by his having collected their peculiar words and proverbs. We find accordingly in his Itineraries (published by Mr. Scott, F. A. S.) that Mr. Dickan Gwyn was confidered as the only per"fon who could then write in the "Cornish language, and who lived "in one of the most western pa"rishes called St. Juft, where there "were few but what could fpeak "English; whilft few of the child"ren alfo could fpeak Cornish, fo "that the language would be foon " entirely loft ||.” Mr. Ray obferves in another part, that Mr. Dickan Gwyn (whom he mentions as the only perfon who could write Cornish) was no grammarian; and that another man, named Pendarvis, was upon the whole perhaps better killed in it; by which I conclude he means that Pendarvis was fuppoted to speak it with greater purity, though he did § Page 26, 27. † Page $5. not not write in that language as Dickan Gwyn did. The last printed account which I have happened to meet with, in relation to the decay of the Cornifh tongue, is in a letter dated March 10, 1701, from Lhwyd to Rowland (author of the Mona Antiqua) who obferves, that it was then only retained in five or fix villages towards the Land's End *. Thus far with regard to written teftimonies: I fhall now proceed to oral. My brother Captain Barrington brought a French Eaft-India fhip into Mount's Bay, in the year 1746, (to the best of my recollection) who told me, that when he failed from thence on a cruife toward the French coaft, he took with him from that part of Cornwall a feaman who fpoke the Cornish language, and who was understood by fome French feamen of the coaft of Bretagne, with whom he afterwards happened to have occafion to converse. I myself made a very complete tour of Cornwall in 1768; and recollecting what I had thus heard from my brother, I mentioned to feveral perfons of that county, that I did not think it impoffible I might meet with fome remains of the language, who however confidered it as entirely loft. I fet out from Penfance however with the landlord of the principal inn for my guide, towards the Sennan, or most western point, and when I approached the village I faid, that there must probably be fome remains of the language in thofe parts, if any where, as the village was in the road to no place whatsoever; and the only alehouse announced itself to be the laft in *See Mona Ant. p. 317. England. My guide however told me, that I fhould be disappointed; but that if I would ride ten miles about in my return to Penfance, he would carry me to a village called Moufehole, on the western fide of Mount's Bay, where there was an old woman called Dolly Pentraeth↑, who could speak Cornifh very fluently. Whilft we were travelling together towards Moufehole I enquired how he knew that this woman fpoke Cornish, when he informed me, that he frequently went from Penfance to Mousehole to buy fish, which were fold by her; and that when he did not offer a price which was fatisfactory, the grumbled to fome other old women in an unknown tongue, which he concluded therefore to be the Cornish. When we reached Mousehole, I defired to be introduced as a perfon who had laid a wager that there was no one who could converfe in Cornifh; upon which Dolly Pentraeth spoke in an angry tone of voice for two or three minutes, and in a language which founded very like Welfh. The hut in which the lived was in a very narrow lane, oppofite to two rather better cottages, at the doors of which two other women ftood, who were advanced in years, and who I obferved were laughing at what Dolly Pentraeth faid to me. Upon this I asked them whether fhe had not been abufing me; to which they answered, " Very hear This name in Welch fignifies, at the end of the fand. younger younger than Dolly Pentraeth. I continued nine or ten days in Cornwall after this; but found that my friends, whom I had left to the eastward, continued as incredulous almost as they were before, about these last remains of the Cornish language, because (amongst other reafons) Dr. Borlafe had fuppofed, in his Natural History of the county, that it had entirely ceafed to be fpoken; it was alfo urged, that as he lived within four or five miles of the old woman at Mousehole, he confequently must have heard of fo fingular a thing as her continuing to use the vernacular tongue. I had fcarcely faid or thought any thing more about this matter, till laft fummer having mentioned it to fome Cornish people, I found that they could not credit that any perfon had exifted within thefe five years who could fpeak their native language; and therefore, though I imagined there was but a small chance of Dolly Pentraeth's continuing to live, yet I wrote to the prefident, then in Devonshire, to defire that he would make fome inquiry with regard to her; and he was fo obliging as to procure me information from a gentleman whofe houfe is within three miles of Moufehole, a confiderable part of whofe lester I fhall fubjoin. "Dolly Pentraeth is short of fta ture, and bends very much with "old age, being in her eighty"feventh year, fo lufy however as "to walk hither, (viz. to Caftle"Horneck) above three miles, in "bad weather, in the morning, "and back again. She is fome"what deaf, but her intelle&ts feemingly not impaired; has 86 a memory fo good, that she re"members perfectly well, that "about four or five years ago at "Moufehole, (where the lives) the "was fent for to a gentleman, "who, being a ftranger, had a "curiofity to hear the Cornish lan"guage, which he was famed for "retaining and fpeaking fluently; and that the inn-keeper, where "the gentleman came from, at, "tended him." [This gentleman was myfelf; however, I did not presume to fend for her, but waited upon her.] "She does indeed at this time "talk Cornish as readily as others "do English, being bred up from "s a child to know no other lan * Dr. Borlafe's words are the following: "That we may attend it to the grave; this language is now altogether ceafed, fo as not to be spoken any where in converfation." Nat. Hift. of Cornwall, p. 316. If Dr. Borlafe had ever heard of this old woman, who lived within four miles of him, he would certainly have here male mention of her, as well as compleated from her his Cornish Vocabulary. Nor was it probably the fact in 1758, (when Dr. Borlafe published his Natural History) that the language had altogether ceased, fo as not to be spoken any where in converfation, because it is not impoffible that the feaman who was on board Capt. Barrington's fhip in 1746 might be then ftill alive, as well as feveral others. It muft alfo be recollected, that ten years after Dr. Borlafe's publication, two old women (neighbours to Dolly Pentraeth) understood what the faid; as alfo that the frequently grumbled to them in Cornish, when a proper price was not offered for her fish, "Cornifa |