Page:The parochial history of Cornwall.djvu/89

Rh given by Mr. Hals, of "silence in town," but Tewor means a hillock generally, so that Tewynton means, in the mixed derivation common in Cornwall from British and Saxon, "the town on a small hill." This place was the seat of the Sowles before they removed to Penrice, and affords a quarry of excellent stone.

Pentwan, the "head of the hillocks of sand." Lower Pentwan is situated at the mouth of the St. Austell river, which would form a pretty little port, were it not for the bar of sand made by the waste brought down from the tin-works, so that small craft only can get in, and that at spring-tides. It is a handsome village, and in good seasons great stores of fish are brought in here.

Pelniddon, "the top of the ford," from "nyd," a ford, was the seat of the knightly family bearing the same name.

Trenorren, which I take to be compounded of Tre-nore-en, "the town of the point," from the Bleak Head, close by which it lies.

THE EDITOR. In Henry the Eighth's reign, Leland described St. Austell as a poor village, nor is it mentioned as a place of any consequence either by Carew or Norden. It first rose into consequence from its vicinity to Polgooth and other considerable mines: it is now a considerable thoroughfare; the great road from Plymouth to the Land's End was brought through it about the year 1760. The export of china clay, the decomposed or never consolidated felspar, to all the great manufactories of earthenware throughout England, affords employment to industry and to capital, in a manner more steady, and therefore more permanently beneficial, than can ever be produced by the working of mines.

To facilitate their commerce, and generally to improve the whole district, a harbour was constructed at Seaforth about forty years ago by Mr. Charles Rash-