Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/133

Rh late discontinued; as also with fairs yearly on the 10th of August and the 18th of October.

TONKIN.

In respect to the etymology of the name Bodmin, or or Bodman, I have no difficulty. I looke upon the word as Saxon-Kernaiwsh, bode and man, or bode-men in the plural, which may safely, and without a catachræsis, be interpreted, the preacher-man, or men. That bode signifies priest, or preacher, in the Cornish, the Gaelic, and other cognate tongues, I confirm by the authority of Alfred, the Saxon grammarian, and of Verstegan, from which is derived our modern Kernawish word for a priest. And this sense is preserved in the names of divers other churches throughout the land; as in the hundred of Weston, Herefordshire, where we find Boddenham Vicarage, bod-den-ham, preacher-man-dwelling, den being in Kernawish synonymous with man.

[The remainder of Mr. Tonkin's narrative agrees so nearly with that of Mr. Hals as not to require its insertion.]

WHITAKER.

"The paroch chirch standith at the est end of the town, and is a fair large thyng," says Leland, an author with whom Mr. Hals had no acquaintance (though the Itinerary of that author was published in 1710, and in some years immediately following; and the Collectanea in 1715); "there is a cantuarie chapel at th' est ende of it." This is the present school, situated a few yards east of the eastern end, raised upon vaults, ascended by steps, entered by an arched door of stone peaked,