40 THE president's ADDRESS, 



It is only when we recognise how essential the educational 

 system was in the Celtic polity that we realise the significance of 

 such great colleges for youths as must have existed at Padstow 

 and Bodmin, Hartland, Buckfast, Mawgan in Pyder, St. 

 German's, Perranzabulo, Mawgan in Kerrier, St. Keverne, 

 Ludgvan, and perhaps St. Sennen ; and for women at the great 

 schools of Breage, Burian, and Grwendron. That there were 

 similar schools in the east of the county I cannot doubt, Altarnon 

 was probably one, St. Issey, attached to the settlement of St. 

 Petrock, and perhaps St. Veep, under the direction of St. 

 Winnow. We cannot, unhappily, establish these points, from 

 not having documentary evidence preserved ; but we may suspect 

 that it was so, because such a system was in full swing in 

 Ireland, and was consonant with the feelings and usages of the 

 Celts in both islands. These establishments were by no means 

 monasteries in the mediaeval acceptation of the term, they were 

 the great national schools, some mixed, others, for each sex 

 separately, in connexion with the tribes to which the saints were 

 attached, probably in Cornwall, not changing their character as 

 they did in Ireland. Whether in our Peninsula the secular 

 chiefs were driven to set up secular schools as well; we do not 

 know. 



One remarkable feature in the character of the saints was 

 their restlessness, a feature which I must now dwell on and 

 explain. 



It was a restlessness that took possession, not of men only^ 

 but of women as well. St. Ninnocha left Ireland at the head 

 of four Bishops and a body of clergy to settle in Brittany. St. 

 Newlyn deserted her foundation in Cornwall with the same 

 purpose. St. Piala left Ireland to seek a home abroad. St. 

 Dominica, also Irish, settled on the Tamar. Our Cornish 

 Constantino was no sooner converted than — apparently in token 

 of conversion — he assumed the pilgrim's staff, visited St. David's 

 in Menevia, crossed into Ireland, and died in Alba. St. Brendan 

 cruised about for seven years seeking the Isles of the Blessed. 

 When Umbrafel, the uncle of St. Samson, was converted, "Now,'' 

 said his nephew, "You must become a pilgrim," and he packed 

 the old man off to Ireland.* 



*Abban McCormic, we read, erected three monasteries in Connaught, then 

 went to Munster, where he founded another, then he went into Muskerry and 



