Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/26

 people who seldom confer with the better sort. But it seemeth however, that in a few years the Cornish will be by little and little abandoned." Such was the state of the Cornish language, according to Norden, about 1610, the year in w^hich it is probable his history was written. The parish of Menheniot was the first in which the inhabitants were taught the Creed, the Lord's prayer, and the Ten Commandments, in English; (about A.D. 1540). The parish of Feock was nearly the last in which Ancient Cornish was used in the church service. The Cornish was so well spoken in the parish of Feock by, the old inhabitants till about the year 1640, ''that Mr. William Jackman, the then vicar, and chaplain also of Pendennis Castle at the siege thereof by the parliament army, was forced for divers years to administer the sacrament to the Communicants in the Cornish tongue, because the aged people did not well understand the English, as he himself often told me." (Hals). ''Although, says Drew, the Cornish language appears to have been excluded from all our Cornish churches except those of Feock, and Landewednack, as early as the year 1640, yet it was not driven from common conver- sation until a much later period. "So late as 1650, the Cornish language was currently spoken in the parishes of Paul, and St. Just; the fish- women, and market-women in the former, and the tinners in the latter, for the most part conversing in their old vernacular tono;ue.''