Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/55

 35 Carew, writing about the same time, and whose "Survey of Cornwall" was published in 1602, gives us more information about the ancient Cornish language. Norden is said to have been a native of Wiltshire, and naturally would not take the same interest in the old language as Carew, a Cornishman, and a member of an ancient and honoured Cornish family. We shall not be disappointed on enquiring what Carew has told us. Of Cornish names he says, most of them begin with Tre, Pol, or Pen, which signify a town, a top, and a head. " By Tre, Pol, and Pen You shall know the Cornishmen." but Camden im his "Remains'' (p. 114) has a much more expressive rhyme, viz : " By Tre, Eos, Pol, Lan, Caer, and Pen You may know the most Cornishmen." Carew, like others, says the " Cornish is more easy to be pronounced " and softer in its sound than the Welsh. To the Englishman, the following examples must appear very uncouth and uninviting, yet doubtless his opinion would be changed, could he hear the old Cornish spoken in its original purity, but this is now impossible of course. Carew names a friend of his, " one Master Thomas Williams," who judged that the Cornish was derived from, or resembled the Greek, and Polwhele, in his Cornish History, compared a number of Greek and Cornish words; but this is a question for the experienced philologist, and