1131 



BODMIN. 



BCEOTIA. 



ll.TJ 



of the bishop* of Cornwall, and that this honour was conferred on it 

 in 905, when the bishops made it their residence till the year 981, 

 when the town and church having been burned and sacked by the 

 Danes, they removed to St. Germans. The see was styled sometimes 

 the bishopric of Cornwall, and at others of St. Germans and Bodmin, 

 until the annexation of the bishopric of Cornwall to that of Crediton 

 in Devon, 1034; about 16 years after which time Exeter was made 

 the head of the diocrae. Ordinations were held in Bodmin church 

 in the 16th century. 



Bodmin was early a place of importance. Its population must 

 have been considerable five centuries ago, if the statement be correct 

 that in 1351 no less than 1500 persons died in it of the pestilence. 

 William of Worcester, who visited Cornwall in the reign of Edward 

 IV., speaks of this as recorded in the registry of the friars, and at 

 the same time he adds that, during that same year, there died in 

 various parts of the world 13,888 persons of the order of friars. 

 Bodmin was one of the decayed towns, to repair which an Act was 

 passed in the 32nd of Henry VIII. In 1496, Perkin Warbeck, the 

 pretended duke of York, landed in Cornwall, and assembled here a 

 force of 8000 men, with which he attacked the city of Exeter. A 

 serious insurrection of the Cornishmen took place in 1498, when 

 Thomas Flammoc, a lawyer, and Michael Joseph, a farrier, of this 

 town, were chosen leaders. These two men joined their forces to 

 those of Lord Audley at Wells in Somersetshire, and marched with 

 this nobleman as far as Eltham in Kent, where there was then a royal 

 palace ; but the insurgents were defeated by the king's troops at the 

 battle of Blackheath, and their leaders Lord Audley, Flammoc, and 

 Joseph were executed. In 1550, in the reign of Edward VI., the 

 Cornish rebels assembled to the number of 10,000, and encamped 

 at Castle Kynock near this town. After a severe contest they were 

 defeated by Lord Russell, who was sent to oppose them. The mayor 

 of the town having been obliged by the insurgents to grant them 

 supplies, became thus obnoxious to the government. Sir Anthony 

 Kingston, the provost marshal, invited himself to dinner at the 

 mayor's house, and privately requested the mayor to get a gallows 

 ereeted, as one of the townspeople was to be executed. After dinner, 

 the gallows being ready, the mayor was informed that he was to be 

 himself the victim, for being a 'busy rebel,' and he was executed 

 accordingly. Bodmin was successively occupied by the two parties 

 in the civil war in the reign of Charles I. ; it was finally taken by 

 General Fairfax in 1646. 



The elective franchise was conferred on Bodmin in the 23rd year 

 of the reign of Edward I., and it has ever since returned two mnl"-i . 

 to Parliament. The first charter seems to be that of Edward III., 

 granted in 13B2. The town is situated nearly in the centre of the 

 county, and is built partly in a valley and partly on a hill side. It 

 is considered healthy, and ite situation is agreeable. The streets ore 

 well paved and lighted with gas : the principal street, nearly a mile 

 long, runs nearly east and west, and contains many good houses. 

 Several of the buildings are faced with cut granite. The town has 

 been considerably improved of late years. The church, which is a 

 handsome structure, was rebuilt in 1472. It is the largest church in 

 the county, being in the interior 151 feet long, and 63 feet broad. 

 It has a massive tower, on which originally stood a lofty spire, 

 destroyed by lightning in 1699. The tomb of Thomas Vivian, who 

 died prior of Bodmin in 1533, a very curious relic, is at the north- 

 cut end of the chancel. It is an altar-tomb with his effigy in his 

 pontificals as titular Bishop of Megora, placed upon it ; anil angels 

 supporting shields, both at the head and the feet. The font is also 

 Terr remarkable. 



There are places of worship for Bryanites, Wesleyan Methodists, 

 and Independent*. The Grammar school which was closed in 1886 

 was revived in 1850. Its income from .endowment is 51. 6. 8d. a 

 year: the number of scholars in 1852 was 25. There are National 

 '< for boys and girl*. About a mile north-west of the town arc 

 the ruins of the ancient hospital of St. Lawrence, incorporated by 

 Queen Elizabeth in 1582, for 39 poor men and women afflicted with 

 leprosy, who were to elect the persons to be admitted. Some pointed 

 arches and portions of the walls remain. King James granted the 

 hospital a market and a fair : the market has long been discontinued, 

 but a fair, which is very well supplied with horses and cattle, is still 

 held on the 21st of August : a fair is also held for cattle and horses 

 on the 29th and 30th of October. The revenue of this hospital 

 amounted to about 1401. per annum; but in consequence of abuse 

 r]K.ration wss dissolved, and the revenue was transferred to 

 the infirmary at Truro, by a decree of the Court of Chancery. 



Tim amizes, quarter sessions, and a county court are held at 

 Bodmin, which is now the county town. A new county assize hall, 

 and judges' lodgings have been erected here within these few years. 

 A commodious market-house has also been erected ; it it constructed 

 of granite and is nn ornamental structure. The county jail, a spacious 

 building, stands a)>out half a mile north-east of the town : the county 

 lunatic asylum is at the western end. The market, whch is chiefly f"V 

 provision", i* ( , n Saturday. A railway for minerals from Bodmin to 

 Wadebri<lge, and np the valleys to Ruthern and Wcnford bridges, 

 opened in 1884, is 14J miles long. In the neighbourhood of Itodinin 

 is much very fine scenery. 



In the Ticinity of Bodmin is Hslagsver Moor, where a low kind of 



festival, called 'Bodmin Hiding,' was formerly held in the month of 

 July. A mock mayor was elected, before whom was lirout- 

 trial some person who appeared to be negligent as to ! 

 appearance or dress. The sentence was frequently exeri :.,! l>y .-. 

 ducking. Hence the proverb respecting a man slovenly dressed, 

 " He shall be presented in Halogaver Court." The ' court ' and 

 'riding' have fallen into desuetude. About a mile and a hair 

 the town is the race-course, where races ore occasionally li. 1 1. Tim 

 remains of a Roman camp are visible about two miles from Bodiuin. 

 Roman urns, coins, tc. have been exhumed on the site. Berry tower, 

 in the burying-ground on the hill north of the town, erect 

 the parishioners in 1501, formed the tower of an ancient chapel, called 

 Berry chapel. 



(Carew's Survey of Cornwall, edited by Lord de Dunstanville ; 

 Borlase's Antiquities of Cornwall ; Davies Gilbert's Parochial Ifittory 

 of Cornwall ; Wollis's Bodmin Rtgitter ; and Cornwall fttgixter.) 



BCEO'TIA, a province of ancient Greece, was bounded N.W. by 

 Phocis, N.E. and E. by the Opuntian Gulf and the Euripus, which 

 separated it from the island of Eubaca, S. by Attica and Megaris, and 

 S.W. by the Corinthian Gulf. This country may be described as con- 

 sisting of two basins of very irregular form and of unequal dimensions, 

 the valley of the Asopus, and the lower part of the vale of the Ccphis- 

 sus. The valley of the Asopus is bounded on the south by the range 

 of Parlies and Cithroron ; the small basin of the Lake Hylike may per- 

 haps be considered as belonging to this division, which C" 

 towns of Thebes, Tanagra, Thespire, Platea, and Ascra. The northern 

 division was not completely surrounded by natural boundaries 

 much as the upper vale of the Cephissus belonged to the Phocinm. It 

 included the Lake Copais, and the towns of Orchomenus, Ch:< -i 

 Coroneia, Lebadeio, and Haliartus. Each of the divisions had its lake 

 and its river ; and as those who dwelt by the Cephissus were called 

 Epicephisii, so those who inhabited the marshy land near the Asopus 

 were called Parasopii. In ancient times the two valleys were under 

 the separate dominion of the two towns which in each of them were 

 most distinguished by their wealth and population. In the northern 

 Orchomenus for a long time took the lead ; and the city on the Isme- 

 nus, under the different names of Cadmea and Thebes, was always the 

 ruling power in the southern portion. On the coast of the Euboic 

 Sea were the towns of Anthedon and Aulin ; ami .1 few miles north- 

 west of the latter, at the foot of the mountniii of the same name, was 



A mountain wall lines the whole continental coast of the Euripuo, 

 from the valley of the Asopus to the flats at the outlet of the Sp.-r- 

 clients.. From Cape Grados, which is immediately opposite to the 

 islet of Strongile, the mountains run westward and form the bom 

 between the basin of the Cephissus and the Spercheius, known in 

 former times as the range of Oeta. This high mountain barrier 

 the outlet of the Asopus, nearly as far north as the bold rocky coast of 

 Cape Stalamata, which is a little north of the ruins of Larymna, belongs 

 to the ancient Bccotia. The heights are from 1300 to 3400 feet above 

 the sea-level. The whole length of the coast of Bocotia, following the 

 indentations, is about 30 miles. The coast of Eubooa opposite to Sta- 

 lamata and Larymna rises still higher ; and the narrow sea between 

 the two coasts is in some places more than -i\t\ fal li"in- deep. 

 is also deep water along the Boeotian and Knhiron coasts, southward 

 to where the Kuripux narrows at Auli.". l-'rom tin- point whore the 

 contracted channel of the Euripus begins to widen again, n low tract 

 which contains the outlet of the Asopns continues for some mile* 

 along the coast to where the highlands of the range of Parnes abut on 

 the sea. 



After describing the coast, Strabo observes (p. 405, Casaub.), that 

 " the interior consists of hollow plains, surrounded on all sides by 

 mountains ; on the south by those of Attica, on the north by those of 

 Phocis ; on the west Cithocron enters the province in mi ol>li.|ii, 

 tion, having its origin a little above the Crisstean <inlf. win 

 the mountains of Attica and Mogaris, anil f In n turnint; into the phiin 

 country subsides in the territory of Thebes." The basin of thi 

 Copais must no doubt be at a considerable elevation. It is the recep- 

 tacle of an extensive drainage. The C'ephissus, which rises in tie 

 central mountains of this part of the continent, runs in a long valley 

 by a general south-east course into the Lake r<>pais, which r. 

 also the waters of the small streams of the Mi-Ins and I.Mplr, 

 The lake is separated from the sea by the range of Mount 1'toon. 

 about four or five miles across. Between the eastern end of the lake 

 and the sea there are natural subterraneous channels (' katabotlu-i') 

 in the limestone rock, which form the outlets of the lake. One of 

 these katabothra, after an underground course of about four < 

 emerges in a broad ami rapid stream at Upper Larymna, from which 

 it I!. i-s above ground to the sea at Lower Larymna. To the east of 

 Lake Copais, and separated from it by Mount Sphingion, is Lake 

 Hylike. ami at a little distance east of this is another small lake now 

 called MoriU and Panilitnni. These are supposed to be connected 

 together and with the Kuripiis by an underground channel. The 

 kntabothra not being sufficient to carry off the superfluous waters of 

 the Lake Copais, two tunnels were cut during the heroic age to guard 

 against the danger of inundation. One of these tunnels is carried 

 through the rock from the north-eastern end of the lake to I'pper 

 Larymna : it is about four miles long, and has about twenty verticjil 



