Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/124

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CORNWALL one see the mast of another ". Leland, still earlier, wrote of it as " a havyn very notable and famose, and in a manner the most principale of al Britayne ". But in speaking of " Fale- mutha " he meant strictly the mouth of the river; there was no town named Falmouth in his day. A few fishing huts stood here, at a spot which the Celts had named Peu-yczcniy " head of the valley " ; to which name the Saxons had added their familiar "wick," signify- ing village. Pen -y - cwm - wick soon became Penny-come-quick, with an appropriately fbolish legend to explain it. There seem also to have been a few cottages known as Smith-wick — unless the two names were interchangeable. Pendennis Castle was erected by Henry VIIL, on the site of earlier fortifications; and in the fine mansion of Arwenack the now extinct family of Killigrew had their seat — still sur- viving in name and partly in reality at Arwenack Street. Realising the possibilities of this noble position, Sir John Killigrew did his best to bring about the establishment of a seaport here, being bitterly opposed, as was natural, by the towns of Truro and Penryn. Sir John impor- tuned, and the towns petitioned; the king (James L) at last sanctioned the building of a few houses. The Civil War supervened, Pen- dennis being held for the king by the brave old John Arundel, in his eighty-seventh year, who defended it for six months, and only surrendered to Fairfiix on the most honourable terms, after every morsel of food had been eaten. Even