Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/93

72 EAST CORNWALL QLOSSAUT. Bideford^ where the peculiarity of Devon is so tnanifest." ^ The popular tongue of East Cornwall^ indeed, reeemhles that of Devon- 9hire and of those counties generally which formed the ancient kingdom of Wessex. CareW (temp, Elizaheth), whose loved dwelling-place Anthony^ the home of many ancestors, was where the' River Lyner " winneth fellowship with the Tamer/' gives ns in his Survey some account of the language of his time. In those days of difficult travel and intercourse, his knowledge of the tongue generally spoken over the county was prohably slight, and chiefly drawn from East ComwalL In his book, admirable for its keenness of observation and felicity of description, often in vernacular phrase, we learn that " most of the inhabitants can speak no word of Cornish, but very few are ignorant of the English." A few did yet so still ^ affect their own ** that to an inquiring stranger they would answer, '* Meea nauidua 'cowzasa- wzneck, = I can speak no Saxonage. However, he says of the old Keltic speech, " The English doth still encroache upon it, and hath driven the same into the uttermost skirts of the shire ; " the fate also of the old Kymric on the opposite shores of Wales and Brittany, llie English which the East Cornish speak " is good and pure, as receyuing it from the best hands of their owne gentry, and the Easteme Merchants." There was still, our historian says, '* a broad and rade accent, eclipsing" after the manner of the Somersetshire men. Considering that the Cornish branch of the Keltic was in use down to a late date, it is remarkable how few and unimportant are its remains. Those grand and almost changeless objects of nature^ ' mountains, valleys, headlands, bays, rivers, submarine bills, and dells, with the more mutable territorial divisions into towns, villages, hamlets, farms, and even fields, still keep their old and very descrip- tive names untouched by changeful time. Here and there we meet with a few of the old designations of animals, trees, and herbs. These are the last to part with the old language. Mountains and rivers,*' remarks Sir Francis PalgravCy still murmur the voice of ' Homes and Haunts qf the Rural Population of Cornwall^ p. 2, by J. T. !rregella8.