Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/70

(^ THE CORNWALL COAST gate of seventy guns, that it was glad enough to escape without finishing its errand. Such are the leading incidents in the history of this plucky little to^^^l, which formerly returned two members to Parliament. Relatively, its eminent position is entirely lost, but it has an eminence for loveliness of situation that can never be taken from it, and it can educate its sons in a glorious though chequered tradition. It has memories of occupation long before days of Cinque Port emulation. Close to Menabilly Park (Menabilly is the seat of the Rash- leighs, a Cornish family of ancient repute) is a granite pillar known as the Longstone, bearing the inscription Cii^usius hie jacit CunomoH films, doubtless commemorating a Romanised Cornish- man. At this manor-house, about two miles west- ward of Fowey, on a height above the sea, is a curious grotto built by a former Rashleigh to exem- plify the mineral wealth of the Duchy. It is octago- nal, and its sides are inlaid with native ores, fossils, shells, and stones. There is a further remarkable mineral collection at the house, with fine specimens of sulphuret of tin and copper, malachite, fluor, crystals, topaz, with some blocks of prehistoric tin. The coast here extends to Gribbin Head, and there is then a sharp bend inward to Par sands. Par is not particularly attractive, except for its pleasant bay ; but the decay of its former mining activities is compensated for by its busy shif)ping of china-clays at the quays built by the late Mr. Treffry. Much of the china-clay goes to distant potteries, or is used for the whitening of cheap so-called linens ; of course, much of this is despatched at the railway station which is the junction for Fowey. This is a British export which seems to be advancing by leaps and bounds ; and this St. Austell district, with