30 CHARTER, ST. LAWRENCE DE PONTEBOY, 



the event of an escheat, would have been supported by the lan- 

 guage of the charter), the Prince was made a party to the suit, and 

 notified his personal assent to the scheme ultimately sanctioned 

 by the Court. This " scheme " adopted partially the proposal of 

 the gentlemen who had promoted the suit ; but, in conformity 

 with the principle of cy pres, that is, of adhering, as nearly as 

 possible, to the general intent of the founders, the Court exacted 

 from the Managers of the County Hospital, as a condition of the 

 transfer, an engagement to receive any patient of the class con- 

 templated by them — -namely, lejDrous patients. The words of the 

 engagement were " that all leprous j)ersons that may offer them- 

 selves for that purpose, shall (without any recommendation of a 

 GoA^ernor) be admitted into the infirmary in preference to any 

 other cases, and provided with jDroper treatment and accommoda- 

 tion in the infirmary, so long as their disorder may require." — 

 13th August, 1810. 



It is remarkable that, shortly after the publication of Professor 

 Babington's notice, an application was actually made by an emi- 

 nent living surgeon to the ofiicers of the infirmary to receive 

 such a case of leprosy. I only mention this incident, because I 

 heard a friend and member of the Institute refer to it as a proof 

 of the value of archseological inquiries. The application was, in 

 fact, suggested aliunde. 



Let me add a word on the name of the original site of this 

 Hospital. It lies at a short distance to the v^^est of the church 

 and town of Bodmin. A stream runs through the village or site 

 of St. Laurence into the larger river that flows down to Padstow. 

 The documents of the Hospital show that there were several mills 

 belonging to it. Mr. Babington reads the name on the seal as 

 " Penpoy," and sees in it a latent Cornish meaning, which he pre- 

 fers to the reading in the charter. I suspect the seal, if rightly 

 read, to be a blunder of the seal engraver, and that a wooden 

 bridge at St. Laurence may have given name to the site of the 

 "Mansyon howse de Ponteboy," as Twiwood, or Twyvel-wood,* 



* As this Paper has been jDassing through the Press, I have availed 

 mj^self of an opportunity of examining, at the Registrar's Office, Truro, the 

 Map of Liskeard, and annexed Schedule of Lands, prepared, some 25 years 

 ago, for the Commissioners appointed to ascertain Duchy Boundaries. 

 Doublebois is there called '^ Douhlehoys otherwise Tivyvelivood "; and, having 

 much faith in Mr. McLauohlan's accuracy, I think the latter reading is 

 probably correct. — Martin's Map calls it " Twilwood." — E. S. 



