Page:A Book of the West (vol. 2).djvu/253

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THE FOWEY RIVER
189


reaches the sea. It does not present anything remarkable till it comes in sight of the highway from Liskeard to Bodmin, as also of the railway, when at once it turns sharply to the west, at right angles to its previous course, and runs through a well-wooded and picturesque valley under the camp of Largin. Then, after flowing side by side with road and rail till it reaches Bodmin Road Station, it turns abruptly south, attending the railway to Lostwithiel, slipping under Restormel Castle.

Lostwithiel is not Lost-wi'in-a-hill as is the popular derivation, but Les-Gwythiel, the palace in the wood, as Liskeard is that on the rock. It is charmingly situated.

It is an old rotten borough, once in the hands of the Earls of Mount Edgcumbe. But before that it was a seat of the Stannary Court for Cornwall, and here the Dukes of Cornwall had their palace. Of this considerable remains exist, but it has been meddled with, and vulgarised by the insertion of quite unsuitable windows.

The church is interesting; it possesses a fine lantern of a character nowhere else met with in the West. Anciently the tide came up as far as the town, and the portreeve had rights over the river, for which reason the town arms are represented with an oar.

Below the town the river to Fowey is full of beauty. It passes S. Winnow, with fine fifteenth-century glass; the church is beautifully situated. Here is a chapel of S. Nectan, of Hartland, to which was attached a college of secular priests endowed by Gytha, wife of Godwin, Earl of Kent. The priests