Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/351

 331 " Gwra perthi de taz ha de mam : mal de Dythiow bethewz hyr war an tyr neb an arleth de dew ryes dees. Exod. XX, 12/' '^ Old Dolly Pentreath " (see Paroch. Hist, of Cornwall, Lake, vol. iv, p. 26) " retained her maiden name until her death, which occurred in her 102nd year; her husband's name was JefFery." In the Bibliotheca Cornuhiensis there is this notice of her — " Jeffery, Dorothy (generally known by her maiden name of Dolly Pentreath, dau. of Nicholas Pentreath), bapt. Paul, 17 May, 1714 ; d. Mousehole, Dec. 1777 ; bur. Paul, 27th Dec."—" All the accounts state that Dolly Pentreath was 102, but her real age at the time of death seems to have been only 63."* The reader has seen what Drew says about Dolly Pentreath, and the positive statements contained in the letter by Daines Barrington. Drew was a careful and experienced writer, and the Cornish History done by him, and printed and published at Helston in 1824, was com- piled by Hitchins, who lived at St. Ives, and died at question naturally arises, Why should she have been known by her maiden name all her life ? If the reader will refer to Polwhele's History of Cornwall, under the heading ' ' The Language, Litera- ture, and Literary Characters of Cornwall" (page 19, in a note), he will find that Polwhele, writing about Dolly Pentreath, states positively and distinctly thus, " Her maiden name was Jeffery." From this then it must have been that she married a man called Pentreath, and was naturally so called afterwards throughout the rest of her very long life. The age 63 is certainly an error, and impossible, according to the testimony of Daines Barrington as given in his letter. (See back pp. 6, 11.) At p. 20, in a note, Polwhele says, " Old Dolly had no family." (Ed. of 1806,)
 * There seems to be an extraordinary mistake in this. The