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LTHOUGH pronounced Foye, the name of the place is spelled Fowey; it takes its appellation from the river. Mr. Ferguson, in his River Names of Europe, derives this from the Gaelic fuair, sound, faoi, a rising stream, and instances the Foyers in Inverness, and the Gaur in Perthshire, for fuair takes also the form gaoir, signifying din, and the Foyers is noted as forming one of the finest falls in Britain. But this won't do. The Foye is the meekest, quietest, and most unbrawling of rivers. The name is identical with that of the Fal, but the l has been dropped, and both derive from falbh, running, waving, flowing.

The river takes its rise on High Moor under Buttern Hill on the Bodmin moors, a mile northwest of Fowey Well that is under Brown Willy, which probably takes its name from being supposed to ebb and flow with the tide, which, however, it does not. The river has a fall of nine hundred feet before it