218 A VALUATION OF THE LANDS OF PENWITH. 



king's majesty now. He married my sisters with five pounds, 

 or twenty nobles, each, having brought them up in godliness and 

 fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and 

 some alms he gave to the poor, and all this he did of the said 

 farm." 



In dealing with this question we must also bear in mind the 

 rapid increase in value in the " spacious times of Queen Eliza- 

 beth," when the English nation awoke and entered on the 

 grand and imperial career ; of which we see the splendid results 

 in the times of Queen Victoria. 



Harrison tells us that at the beginning of the century (the 

 time from which this valuation dates) farms were let at four 

 pounds a year, which in 1576 had been raised to forty, fifty, or 

 a hundred pounds. 



It is necessary to bear this in mind in considering the valu- 

 ation of the lands in the various parishes, and it is also necessary 

 to remember the different conditions under which land is now 

 held, and thai which obtained during the feudal system. 



The accumulation of capital was then not desired, but rather 

 the well being of the commonwealth ; and the state interfered 

 for the protection of the labourer, and the regulation of his wages. 

 These facts will account for the small sums, as we should now 

 regard them, at which the principal landowners in the various 

 parishes were assessed. 



As an example I will take the representative of the family 

 of Levelis of Trewoof or Trove, the remains of whose ancient 

 manor house are still extant on a sunny slope near Lamorna. 

 From the ruins it must have been a fine old mansion built by 



" The worthy family that flourished here ; 

 Since William's conquest full six hundred year." 



They were the principal people in the parish, and at the 

 time of this will, Johanna daughter and sole heiress of John 

 Trewoof had carried the estate to Thomas Levelis of Castle 

 Horneck and Landewednack, who settled at Trove ; yet in the 

 return for Buryan Parish, Thomas Levelis's lands are valued 

 at three pounds per annum, and his goods at fifteen pounds. 



Carew, writing in the time of Queen Elizabeth, states 

 broadly that "the western Cornish by a like but more 



