Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/192

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CORNWALL merits cut by Daniel Gumb, who lived among the Cheesewring rocks in the eighteenth cen- tury. LISKEARD.— As the word /an (Welsh Han) originally meant enclosure, then sacred en- closure, and so came to mean church, in like manner the word lis meant the secular enclosure, the chieftain's fort, and so came to mean court or palace. The prefix abounds in Ireland, but in Wales and Cornwall has almost always been supplanted by the /an. The /leard is more doubtful. One authority gives the meaning as "rocks" ; another as " woodland " ; another as "eminence". Perhaps the neighbouring hill of Caradon embodies the same root. We have practically the same name in the Liscard of Cheshire. The church, dedicated to St. Martin, is the largest in Cornwall with the exception of Bodmin ; its tower, belonging to an earlier building, is E.E. ; the remainder is late Perp. Interesting features are the lych-gate and the pulpit. The church belonged to Launceston Priory; the monks tried to get the vicarage also. Liskeard possessed a Norm, castle, built by Richard Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III., who was elected King of the Romans, but never enjoyed anything more than the empty title. The site of this castle is now a public park, adorned by an insignificant police- station, once the grammar-school at which " Peter Pindar " (Dr. Wolcot) was educated. A stannary town and a borough, Liskeard can boast of at least two among its parliamentary 162