SOME EXTINCT CORNISH FAMILIES. 
331 
or means of escape. There were three doors, and also exits through 
the ceiling and the floor. There was at one time a chapel attached 
to the house, as in the case of most other ancient mansions. 
It still possesses a fine portico of white granite along the north 
front, and there is a hedge of box twenty feet high, besides a 
hedge broad enough to drive a waggon on. I have referred to 
this house at some length, because it is important to remember 
the kind of surroundings of the West Cornish gentry in Tudor and 
Stuart times, if we wish to form a just idea of their manner of 
living, or to compare them with the same class in other parts of 
the kingdom during the same period. 
It is no part of my duty in this paper to detail the births, 
marriages, and deaths of a succession of worthy sheriffs, knights, 
and squires of this family who succeeded the first John, Lord 
Godolphin ; and I pass over several who filled these and other 
similar offices until we come to Sir William Godolphin, who was 
knighted by "Bluff King Hal," and distinguished himself by 
his bravery at the siege of Boulogne. He represented Cornwall 
as a knight of the shire in the Parliaments of Henry VIII. and 
Edward VI., and dying in 1570 was buried in Breage Church. 
It is on record that Sir William was one of a commission or jury 
appointed in the fourth year of Queen Elizabeth u to inquire what 
wife or wives in the county of Cornwall did wear, since the 15th 
of August last, any gown of silk, French hood, or bonnet of 
velvet, with any habiliment paste or edge of gold about her or 
their necks, or in their ruffes, or in or upon any parcel of their 
body." The object of this was to see that all who were so 
attired should also own a trotting gelding, in order to provide 
cavalry horses in time of war. The jury found that the wives 
of Sir William Godolphin, John Trelawny, John Arundell of 
Lanherne, Hugh Trevanion, Piers Edgcumbe, Arundell of Trerice, 
and John Bevyll, had all been so attired, and could all 
provide horses. The two first-named were well able to act on 
the jury, since they had to make oath as to their own wives' 
finery. The nephew and heir of Sir William was Sir Francis 
Godolphin, knighted by Elizabeth, who helped Carew to write his 
Survey of Cornwall, and who also did probably more than any 
other Cornishman to introduce improvements in mining, especially 
in stamping and washing the ore. It is stated that he was assisted 
by a skilled German, who in this instance was not a Dr. Douster- 
