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THE EAELT TOPOGEAPHY OF PALMOUTH, 



Illustrated by MAPS of Different Periods of time. 

 By H. M. JEFFBRT, F.E..S., Vice-President. 



Hoc, quodcunque vides, hospes, qua maxima Eoma est, 

 Ante Phrygem iEneam coUis et herba fuit. 



Atque ubi Navali sunt sacra palatia Phoebo, 

 Evandri profugEe concubuere boves. — Prop, Lih. IV. 



I. On the early names — SmitMck, Pennycomequick, and 

 Porthan. 



The usual derivation of Smithick — partly English, partly 

 Cornish — was assigned by Hals (Collections, 1685 — 1736), "the 

 Smith's creek, leat, or bosom of waters, from a smith that Kved 

 at the creek, or cove, now in the centre thereof." Britton and 

 Brayley (1801) would write the word Smithwick, and pronounce 

 it Smithike, but the hybrid mixture of English and Saxon was 

 equally unlikely in Cornwall in early times. Dr. Bannister 

 considered "Smith" to be corrupted from "smooth," as in 

 Smithfield, and is followed by Mr. Worth ( Guide to Falmouth, 

 1876). Considerable doubt is thrown on these etymologies by 

 reference to two unconnected maps of Elizabeth's reign. In 

 Burleigh's map (Plate A), at the headland, Pencarven Point, on 

 which the new quay of Flushing now stands, St. Metheke is 

 written; and in Boazio's map, 1597 (Plate D), St. Mithick's Eoade 

 is placed off the Green Bank, or site of Dunstanville Terrace, 

 probably to denote the inner harbour. (Carri eke Eoade is entered, 

 but not King'sEoade, or the inner harbour, mentioned by Carew in 

 1602). Mithick or Methick the saint (in Cornish, physician) is 

 nowhere else recorded ; but the possible corruption of the name 

 by slurring into Smithick is justified by the analogy of Seleven, 

 SlutsweU, Swalloch, Swynnear, from St. Leven, St. Htut's Well, 



