CORNISn NAMES. 



55 



given a meaning, I give this on his authority, without vouching for 

 its correctness. Some very absurd meanings have been given by 

 very learned men. Thus Lostwithiel is made by Carew to mean 

 "a lion's [guitfil) tail {lost),^^ as absurd as the vulgar meaning 

 assigned "Lost i' the hill." The probable meaning seems to be, 

 ''The Irishman's {givydhel) encampment." We know the Irish 

 did make inroads into Britain, as well as send missionaries here. 

 The not distant parish of Withiel may be from an Irish saint ; or 

 this name and the latter part of Lostwithiel may be the same as 

 the Welsh gwyddwal, — a place full of bushes, briars, &c. Cary- 

 bullock Park was a deer park of the duke's, and, says Carew, "it 

 hath lost its qualitie through exchanging deere for hulloch.''^ Ton- 

 kin makes this " Prince's (bulach) town {caer) ;" it may come from 

 the Welsh hwlch, a pass. Of Pennance, a very common name, 

 meaning simply "vale {nans) head {pen),''^ Drew says, "a name 

 supposed to have been imposed when the place was given to the 

 church as commutation for sins committed." Trescobeas is ren- 

 dered by Hals "treble or threefold kisses" (haie^ to kiss); but 

 Tresco is elder [scaw) town {tre), and beas may = vez, outside. 

 Tresamble in " Gwennap, a poem," by Francis, a native of the 

 parish, is rendered, "The house {tre) on the burdensome {sam) 

 big-belly (bol) hill;" but Sambol is a family name (? = St. Paul), 

 so it may be Sambol's dwelling. And very many names of places 

 are in this latter way to be explained. Many of the suffixes are 

 composed of names that may be recognized as those once common 

 in Wales, names of British saints and princes recorded in Welsh 

 genealogies, and Cornish serfs in the Bodmin Manumissions, and 

 tenants, both Celtic and Teuton, named in Domesday ; so that it is 

 useless to attempt to force other signification upon them, though 

 many, doubtless, tliat ori<;inally came from this source have been 

 intentionally or unintentionally altered, to make them bear an 

 apparently fitting meaning. 



With regard to Cornish saints bearing names as strange and out- 

 landish as Cornish plac s, and altogv ther ignored by the Roman 

 calendar, it must be remembered that Christianity was established 

 here before the mission of St. Augustine from Home; that, accord- 

 ing to the Welsh Triads, Cornwall was an archiepiscopal see before 

 the foundation of Canterbury ; and that many eminent men who 

 fled from constantly encroaching pagan Saxons would find a refuge 

 in Cornwall, and give tlieniselves up here to a religious life, as 



