Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/56

Rh Tonkin says. Whether it was translated from English or whether the Cornish is the original does not appear. The story is not quite the same (or quite so scrupulously " proper ") as the English nursery version. There is a copy in the handwriting of Chirgwin in the Gwavas MS., and one copied from Tonkin's MS. in the Borlase MS. It was printed by Pryce in an amended form, and by Polwhele.

6. A song on the curing of pilchards (not a very poetical subject) by John Boson. Twenty-six lines of rhyming couplets beginning "Me canna've war hern gen cock ha ruz" (I will sing, or my song is, of pilchards with boat and net), and describing the process of bringing the fish ashore and putting them into bulks and making "fairmaids" of them. There is a copy with a translation in the Borlase MS., which was printed in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall for 1866, and Da vies Gilbert printed it at the end of his edition of Jordan's Creation in 1827, but without any translation.

Verses and Epigrams.

1. Nine short sayings in verse, printed in Pryce and Davies Gilbert, and copied by Borlase from Tonkin. The first, "An lavar goth ewe lavar gwir," etc., occurs also in Lhuyd.

2. Epigram on the verdict in the suit of Gwavas v. Kelynack, respecting tithes of fish. Eight lines by W. Gwavas. It occurs in the Gwavas and Borlase MSS., and in Pryce and Polwhele.

3. "To Neighbour Nicholas Pentreath," by Gwavas. Six lines. In the Borlase MS., and in Pryce and Polwhele.

4. "Advice from a friend in the country to his neighbour who went up to receive £16,000 in London," by John Boson. In the Borlase MS., and in Pryce and Polwhele. Eight lines.