256 ANNUAL MEETING. 



obtained again in Cornwall. The collection had been magnifi- 

 cently preserved, and, which was very important, the labels were 

 in perfect condition. It had given him great pleasure to do what 

 he had been able to do (applause). 



The President said his next duty, which was indeed a very 

 pleasing one, was to present to the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould the 

 fifth Henwood gold medal awarded to him by the Council. They 

 had to thank Mr. Baring-Gould for placing on record, from 

 materials inaccessible to the general public, the lives and traditions 

 of the old Cornish saints, thus enabling the public to obtain in- 

 formation which would, without the assistance of such a learned 

 gentleman as Mr. Baring-Gould, have been entirely out of their 

 reach 'applause). 



Mr. Baring-Gould said that day would be a proud and happy 

 one for the rest of his life, because of the presentation of this 

 memorial of the little work he had done for the county. The 

 history of Cornish saints was one of peculiar interest, because it 

 was only through them that they were able to obtain any idea of 

 the early history of the county. If it were not for sxich scanty 

 records as remain, for instance, of the names of the Irish saints 

 in the Lizard district and in Penwith, they would know nothing 

 at all aboat the great Irish settlement which had taken j)lace 

 there. Then, again, in the north-east of Cornwall, but for the 

 names of saints there, and also for inscribed stones and oghams, 

 they would know nothing at all of the settlement from Brecknock, 

 of the Irish family, which had taken possession there. The 

 records of the past were very, very scanty, and, with regard to 

 the saints, there were detailed narratives of the lives of a certain 

 number of them only. These few were written down very late, 

 and they had to be sifted and compared one with the other before 

 the real facts were arrived at. At the same time, there were a 

 good number of pitfalls and traps into which one might fall in 

 considering their history. He could not say that he had been 

 altogether free from such himself. Of late a discovery had been 

 made which wou^ld very materially assist them, and that was the 

 manuscript collection made by Nicholas Poscarrock at the end of 

 the sixteenth century, and committed to writing about 1610. It 

 was known to old Hals, because he referred to Nicholas Poscar- 

 roek having a Cornish life of St. Columba, and this Roscarrock 



