Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/14

 PREFACE church is dedicated to St. Sennen, or St. Feock, or St. Gwinear. Readers will want to know who these saints were. The names sound strangely unfamiliar. Even when we meet a dedication to St. Paul, we must be careful not to conclude hastily that the great Apostle of the Gentiles is referred to. Cornish dedica- tions are entirely Celtic in their manner and method ; to parallel them we must go to Wales and Ireland and Brittany. The matter is difficult and involved, clouded by fable, con- fused by the lying romances of monkish bio- graphers. Teutonic pagan invaders destroyed most of such genuine records as existed ; an equally destructive Puritanism completed the work. It has been left to modern writers like W. C. Borlase and the Rev. S. Baring-Gould to try to evoke order from the confusion. But Cornwall also differs from other counties in race and tradition. It is still partly Iver- nian, partly Celtic, very little Teutonic. It was never Romanised and never Saxonised. Till comparatively modern times it had its own language. Its Christianity owed nothing to the Italian mission. It has a wonderftil wealth of legend and superstitious lore ; its antiquities are more numerous and varied than those ot