Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/80

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CORNWALL scription, Quenatavus laii7tui films. The date is supposed to be about 600 a.d. Blidand (about 6 m. N.E. of Bodmin) has a church dedicated to St. Protus, of which the walls of nave and chancel are Norm., the re- mainder Perp. The ecclesiastical designation of the parish was Bliston-juxta-montem; it is not quite clear which hill is referred to. Bel- larmine's Tor is the nearest, but Brown Willy may be meant. The estate was held by Harold in the time of the Confessor. There is a brass in the church dated 1410. Boconnoc (4 m. E. of Lostwithiel) is famous not only for its memories of the Civil War, but for the lovely wooded park of Boconnoc Manor. The house stands in a lawn of 100 acres, while the well-watered park is stocked with beeches and oaks. Held under the Con- queror by Robert de Mortain, the manor passed later to the Carminows, Courtenays, and Mohuns; the last Lord Mohun being the infamous duellist, killed in 171 3. (See Thack- eray's Esmond.^ Thomas Pitt, of Madras, owner of the famous Pitt diamond, then bought the estate, and one of his descendants was another noted duellist, the second Lord Camelford. At Boconnoc also was born the first William Pitt. In 1644 the house was seized for the king, who took up his quarters here. He is said to have been fired at while standing under an oak, which tree, from surprise and horror, after- wards bore parti-coloured leaves. The present mansion dates chiefly from the late eighteenth 62