Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/353

 333 or old inscription on the supposed tombstone was — "Here lieth Old Dolly Pentreath, who lived one hundred years and two, was born and buried in Paul parish too. Not in the Church amongst people great and high, but in the Churchyard doth old Dolly lie." — (The tombstone here referred to, is the supposed one spoken of by Drew in his History of Cornwall, and not that erected by Prince L. L. Bonaparte in 1860.) DOLLY PENTREATH AND THE OLD COENISH LANGUAGE, &c. Sir, By the request of Mr. Trewavas, your correspondent, I avail my- self of this favourable opportunity to furnish you with an incident, or two, relative to the above celebrated dame. Though there were several of Dolly's neighbours who had an acquaintance with the old Cornish, she became more generally known as a living repository of the almost defunct language from her occupation as a fish-seller, or back-jouster, her particular voca- tion calling her to nearly all parts of the surrounding country, where the good, but perhaps parsimonious housewives, declining her terms, and refusing the fish, often drew from the ancient dame, in choicest Celtic, the outpourings of her wrath ; for Dolly was a woman of spirit, and had a sharp tongue. It has even been said that Dolly used to swear in Cornish. The house in which the ancient dame lived, at the time she followed the occupation of a fish-seller, is still to be seen at Mouse- hole,* and at present is occupied by two fishermen as a net loft, &c. opposite side of the street, but a little lower down, than were stands the " Keig- win Arms," and sketched from near the porch of the old Inn.
 * See the frontis -piece — for house and portrait. The house is on the