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32 with that revival of Cornish patriotism which seems to have happened in the early seventeenth century.

11. Nebbaz Gerriau dro tho Carnoack (A few words about Cornish), by John Boson of Newlyn. The only known MS. of this little tract in Cornish and English was formerly among the MSS. of Dr. William Borlase in the possession of his descendant, Mr. W. C. Borlase. The present writer had it in his possession for a short time in 1877 or 1878, and copied about half of it, but returned it to Mr. Borlase, who wanted it back, and it was then printed in the 1879 volume of the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall. At the time of the sale of Mr. Borlase's library, this tract, which when the present writer last saw it used to live between the pages of Dr. Borlase's MS. Collections on Cornish, did not appear, and its present ownership is unknown. It is in the handwriting of the Rev. Henry Usticke, Vicar of Breage (died 1769), and in the Gwavas MS. in the British Museum there are several pieces in the same hand. As a copy of Boson's original it is rather inaccurate, but Boson wrote by no means a clear hand. It is of great interest as the composition of one who, though he was brought up to speak English, as he himself says, had acquired a thorough knowledge of Cornish as it was spoken in his day, without having even looked at any of the literary remains of the language. He was also a man of general education, and in this tract and in his letters is rather fond of airing his Latin. Very little is known of him except that he was the son of Nicholas Boson and was born at Newlyn in 1655 and died some time between 1720, the date of his last letter to Gwavas, and 1741, the date of the death of the latter, who is recorded to have received a copy of verses in Cornish found among Boson's papers after his death. The date of the Nebbaz Gerriau is