Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/27

Mr. Scawen, in his manuscript, says, that in 1678, the Eev. F. Robinson, rector of Landewednack, " preached a sermon to his parishioners, in the Cornish language only." ^' From this period, continues Drew, the Cornish language appears to have been driven from the Cornish churches entirely ; or if not wholly banished, we have no further record of its being retained or used on any occasion in the service of public worship. "And so rapid was its declension throughout the County from this period (1678) in all the ordinary con- cerns of life, that Mr. Lhuyd, in a letter to Mr. Rowland, dated March 10, 1701, observes, that the Cornish language was then only retained in five or six villages towards the Land's End. "In every stage through which we pursue the Cornish language, we thus perceive that its limits become more and more circumscribed. From five or six villages towards the Land's End, in which the Cornish tongue was spoken in 1701, we must now descend to individuals, and from them trace it to its grave." Drew relates how that in 1746, Captain Barrington took a seaman from Mount's Bay who understood Cornish so well as to be able to converse with some sailors of Brittany, and it is very natural to suppose that many others knew the Cornish language at the above date, but Dr. Borlase thought, in 1758, that it had "altogether ceased so as not to be spoken anywhere in conversation." But, says Drew, " this opinion appears to be rather premature. It might be true, that the language was no longer spoken in common conversation from choice, but that several persons