DESCMl'TION OF AN ANCIENT LAMP. 15X 



It appears from History tliat the sliores of Mount's Bay were 

 visited at an early period by people from tlie east, and m.ention 

 is made of the British Islands by their names three centuries 

 before the Christian Era. Merchants came in ships to get a 

 sup])ly of metal known and highly prized by the peoi:)le of 

 Western Asia, and the dwellers along- the coast of the Mediter- 

 ranean ; and it may reasonably be supposed that these traders 

 would bring with them some of the domestic articles in use in 

 their own country, which might be quite new to the Cornish of 

 that day, situated as they were far away from the seats of the 

 arts, sciences, and ci^sdhzation. By such a peoj)le, a lamj), though 

 of rude construction, that would light up their huts and caverns 

 diu'ing the long winter nights, would be highly prized, and of 

 great value ; and as mechanism and the use of tools for orna- 

 menting advance slowly, the same simple and easily constructed 

 lamp would be handed down from generation to generation, and 

 fi'oni age to age. 



The Cornish Chil, or lamp, was usually made b}' the combined 

 workmanship of carpenter and blacksmith, sometimes by the 

 cottagers themselves. That represented by the engraving is 

 about a foot in height, and six inches in breadth, the back piece, 

 or upright, sparingly carved or indented. The vessel in which 

 the oil and wick are placed is made of thin sheet iron, termin- 

 ating in a lip or beak, and hooked on to the upright, so that it 

 can be easilly removed for the purpose of being cleaned. The 

 horizontal part is supported in front by two legs, two inches in 

 height. A saucer is usually placed under the lip to catch any 

 dro]5s of oil that might fall from it. 



Tlie wick in modern times was generally of cotton, but 

 retained its ancient, and no doubt primitive name, Purvan, a Celtic 

 word signifying rushes, or the pith of rushes. When neither 

 cotton nor pith of rushes could be obtained, strips of linen were 

 plaited together and locally called a Booha. 



History gives the invention of the lamp to the Egyptians^, 

 from whom it passed to the Greeks and Romans. The earliest 

 were simply the skulls of animals and sea shells in which /«i^ 

 was burned ; the wick, frequently of rushes and other vegetable 

 fibre. It is remarkable that that part of the Cornish Chil which 

 contains the oil and the wick resembles the skull of some animal, 

 and also' the form of some of the lamps found in excavating the 



