352 Retrospective Criticism. 



land. This venerable monument of antiquity has borne different names at 

 different periods. According to the register book of Landaff, its earliest name 

 seems to have been " Dinsol or Dunsul," which has been interpreted " the 

 hill dedicated to the sun," and the " hill of prospect." By Ptolemy, Carew, 

 Tonkin, Borlase, Britton, and Brayley it was called by different names in the 

 ancient Cornish language ; all of which signify, according to William of 

 Worcester, " Le Hore Rok in the Wodd," or the hoary rock in the wood; 

 and William of Worcester, Drayton, and Carew assert that it was anciently 

 covered with trees ; whilst tradition reports that it was connected, by a large 

 tract of land, full of churches, with the Isles of Scilly. William of Worcester 

 also says, that before the tenth century it lay six miles within land, enclosed 

 by a thick wood, affording shelter for wild beasts, amid a variegated scenery 

 of meadows, fields, groves, trees, villages, and churches ; all of which, with a 

 large tract of ground called the " Lioness," were submerged by the ocean : 

 and Tonkin says, it amounts almost to a certainty that much land hath been 

 lost by inundation round the Mount and adjacent country; whilst Leland 

 remarks, that " in the baye betwyxt the Mont and Pensants be found, nere 

 the lowe water mark, rootes of trees yn dyvers places." In corroboration of 

 at least some of the above statements, Gilbert, in his Historical Survey of 

 Cornwall, informs us, " that, about sixty years since, an oak tree of considerable 

 size, with roots and limbs to it, and the roots stuck fast in the very mould it 

 grew in (a black moory sort of earth), was taken up between the Mount and 

 Penzance." This tree was discovered at a very low ebb of the tide ; and 

 Mr. Giddy of Penzance some years ago discovered, at an extraordinary reces- 

 sion of the tide, several stumps of trees in their native soil, with the roots 

 shooting out from them, and with their stems apparently cut off. A vast 

 number of hazel boughs, with perfect nuts adhering to them, have also been 

 found between Marazion and Penzance, below the natural bed of the soil. To 

 account for the above extraordinary inundation, Gilbert, in his Historical 

 Survey, has a note upon it, which runs thus : — " The grand encroachment of 

 the water upon the land plainly resulted from a preponderance of the Atlantic 

 upon the Cornish shores, occasioned perhaps by a proportional secession 

 from the shores of America. It is this preponderance which has thrown such 

 a volume of waters on the Scilly Islands, as to break the ten isles of Strabo 

 into a hundred and forty islets, and has left only their mountains to testify of 

 their existence," &c. ; and Mr. Whitaker, he says, " cites a mass of authori- 

 ties in favour of this fact." It appears, therefore, from the above abridged 

 and concise accounts, that the Mount was, in remote ages, attached to the 

 main land, and that it had its share of trees and foliage, which rendered it a 

 very different spectacle from what it at present exhibits. It naturally follows 

 that the neighbouring country around was, in those days, furnished with wood 

 to a greater extent by far than it is at present : in proof of which, there are 

 many places at this day to the names of which the word " wood" is attached, 

 but where now there is scarcely a tree in existence; such as " Clawance 

 Wood," " Binner Wood," " Kirton Wood," &c. Perhaps, in those days, 

 when the country was broader in extent than at present, the sea air was less 

 injurious to vegetation, and therefore trees would grow better : but whatever 

 might then have been the state of that part of the island, it is now, with the 

 exception of gentlemen's seats, parks, and villas, nearly destitute of foliage, 

 and, what is worse, the farmers in general are mortal enemies to any thing 

 like a tree growing on their estates, with the exception of a few that may 

 happen to be sprinkled round their houses, farm buildings, and orchards. This 

 is to be accounted for by the farms being generally small and the rents high, 

 which makes every inch of ground valuable. Even the -shadow of a tree upon 

 any part of the land makes the farmer uneasy ; and if ^the land happens to be 

 his own freehold, the axe is immediately applied ; while, if at rack-rent, or on 

 lease, ten to one if the landlord or his steward is not applied to for permission 

 to remove it as a nuisance. The farmer, therefore, regardless of shelter for 

 his cattle, or of beautifying the country, must not be looked up to even as an 



