Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/247

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PENTARGON— PENZANCE with much china-cla}, at the small port here. The old tin-works revealed proofs that the sea has here encroached on land that was once well wooded. Pentillie Castle (5 m. N. of Saltash), in the parish of Pillaton, is a modern building, appar- ently named after its proprietors, the Tillies. Sir James Tillie, dying in 171 2, left directions that his body should be placed in a tower on his grounds, seated at a table supplied with requisites for smoking and drinking. This strange imitation of heathen burials was not strictly carried out. PENZANCE is the largest town in Corn- wall, with the exception of Camborne, the population at the last census being 13,123, an increase of 691. The name pcn-sans means " holy headland," and certainly first applied to the point of land now known as Battery Rocks, on which stood an ancient chapel ; but the town authorities, misreading the title to mean " holy head," took the Baptist's head as the town arms. So far as record goes, the town cannot claim great antiquity, though the wealth of old-time relics in the district is almost inexhaustible. Its market was granted in 1332, its charter in 1 51 2, and in 1614 the town was incorporated. It was also a coinage town. The mother parish is Madron, but Penzance has now three good churches of its own, the oldest of which, St. Mary's, was erected in 1835 on the site of a chapel of Our Lady, whose alms-box and font still survive. o 209