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ON THE EAIiLY ACCEPTATION OF THE NAME OF FALMOUTH. 

 By HENEY M. JBFFBRY, F.R.S., "Vice-President. 



In early times prior to 1661 the name was used in two senses, 

 (1) to denote the entrance (entrie) between the ShagEock off St. 

 Antony's point and Pendennis point ; (2) in the usual extended 

 form of " Falmouth Haven " to embrace not only the Carrick 

 and Bang's Eoads, now designated the outer and inner Harbour 

 of Falmouth, but the main river Fal, with all its affluents, so far 

 as they are reached by the tide, or are navigable by boats. 



Thus Leland writes 1533 — 1540 in sense (2) : " Falemuth ys 

 a havyn very notable and famose. At the hedde of the olde ful 

 se marke of Falemuth is a market-toune cawled Tregoney." 



In the (1) primitive sense he writes: " In the mydde way 

 between Falemuth and Dudman is an islet, cawled Grefe." 

 (Grreeb ?). Accordingly in the extant maps and charts of the 

 16th and 17th centuries the river Fal and its tributaries are 

 designated Falmouth Haven. 



In the Public Eecord Office there exists a " plot of Famouth 

 Fort," in which the keep is called Pendennis Castle : in this plan, 

 which was drawn by John Norden in 1611, " Famouth " is used 

 in the original sense (1). 



So also in the " Weekly Intelligencer," 1646, St. Mawes is 

 the ' 'nethermost fort of Falmouth, which hath the chief command 

 of the harbour." This last writer distinguishes the mouth from 

 the harbour itseK. 



A valuable map of the river Fal and its affluents was drawn 

 by Baptista Boazio in 1597, of which two copies are preserved in 

 the War Office, and an engraving is published with this number 

 of the Journal (Plate D.) Boazio styles it a map of " Falmouth 

 Bale," using both words in their ancient, and not in their modern, 

 acceptation. Although parts of the outer coast are drawn, 

 reaching Porthscatha to the eastward and to the westward as far 



