the most westerly county of England, bounded by the English channel on the south, St George's channel on the west, the Bristol channel on the north, and on the east by the river Tamar, which separates it from Devonshire. Its name is supposed by some to be compounded of corn, signifying "a rock" in the British language, and Gauls, or Wauls, the name the Saxons gave to the Britons. Others, however, think it is derived from the Latin cornu, or the British kern, "a horn;" on account of its running out into the sea somewhat in the form of a horn. Hither the ancient Britons (as well as in Wales) retired on the intrusion of the Saxons, where they opposed their further conquests. In this part of the island they formed a kingdom that existed for many years after, under different princes, amongst whom were Ambrosius Aurelius, and the justly celebrated Arthur; nor were they subdued till the middle of the 7th century, from which time Cornwall was considered as subject to the West Saxon kings, who begun their sovereignty in 519, and continued it till 828, under 18 sovereigns, the last of whom was the great Egbert, who subdued all the others; and by uniting them, formed the kingdom of England, when this county was included in the county of Devon, then the 9th division; and that accounts for Alfred's not mentioning Cornwall, which on forming the circuits after the Norman conquest, is included in the western circuit. In 1337, Edward III. erected it into a dukedom, and invested with it Edward the Black Prince. But this, according to the express words of the grant, is limited to the first-born son and heir, on which account Richard II. was created duke of Cornwall by charter. So was Henry V. by his father Henry IV. Henry VI. delivered the duchy to his son prince Edward, and Edward IV. created his son Edward V. duke of Cornwall, as did Henry VII. his son, afterwards Henry VIII. upon the death of his elder brother Arthur. James I. created his son Henry duke of Cornwall, which title on his decease came to his brother Charles. The eldest sons of succeeding kings have enjoyed this title by inheritance. These not only appoint the sheriff, but all writs, deeds, &c. are in their name, and not in the king's; and they have also peculiar royalties and prerogative distinct from the crown, for which they appoint the officers. This county is 80 miles long, 40 broad, and 250 in circumference; containing 960,000 acres, and 126,000 inhabitants. It is divided into 9 hundreds; has 27 market towns, viz. Launceston, Truro, Falmouth, Helston, Saltash, Bodmin, St Ives, Tregony, Camelford, Fowey, St Germans, Penryn, Callington, St Austell, East Looe, Padstow, St Columb, Penpance, Grampound, Leifard, Leifwithiel, St Mawes, St Michael, Newport, Market Jew, Stratton, and Redruth; 1230 villages, 161 parishes, 89 vicarages, provides 640 men to the militia, and pays 8 parts of the land-tax. Its chief rivers are the Tamar, Fal, Cober, Looe, Camel, Fowey, Haile, Lemara, Kenfe, and Aire. Its principal capes or head-lands are the Land's-end, the Lizard, Cape Cornwall, Deadman's-head, Rame-head, &c. and a cluster of islands, 125 in number, called the Scilly Isles, supposed formerly to have been joined to the main land, though now 30 miles distant; abounding with antiquities, particularly druidical.

As Cornwall is surrounded by the sea on all sides except the east, its climate is somewhat different from that of the other parts of Britain. The reasons of this difference will be easily understood from what is observed concerning the climate of America. The summers in Cornwall are less hot, and the winters less cold, than in other parts of England, and the spring and harvest are observed to be more backward. High and sudden winds are also more common in this than in other counties of England. The county is rocky and mountainous; but the mountains are rich in metals, especially tin and copper. The valleys are very pleasant and fertile, yielding great plenty both of corn and pasture. The lands near the sea-coast are manured and fertilized with sea-weed, and a kind of sand formed by the particles of broken shells as they are dashed against each other by the sea. Cattle of all sorts are smaller here than in the other counties of England; and the wool of the sheep, which are mostly without horns, is very fine, and the flesh, both of them and of the black cattle, extremely delicate. The county is well supplied with fish from the sea and the many rivers with which it is watered. The most noted of the sea-fish is the pilchard; of which prodigious quantities are caught from July to November, and exported to different parts, especially to Spain. It is said that a million have been sometimes taken at a single draught. The natives are remarkable for their strength and activity, as well as their dexterity in wrestling, in which exercise the Cornish hogs is highly extolled.

This county abounds in mines of different metals and semimetals; but the principal produce is tin. The Phoenicians early visited these coasts for this article, some think 400 or 450 years before Christ; and the mines continued to be wrought with various success at different periods. In the time of king John they appear to have yielded no great emolument; the right of working them being wholly in the king as earl of Cornwall, and the mines farmed by the Jews for 100 marks; and according to this proportion the tenth of it, L.6.13s.4d., is at this day paid by the crown to the bishop of Exeter. In the time of Richard king of the Romans and earl of Cornwall, the tin-mines were immensely rich, the Jews being farmed out to him by his brother Henry III. what interest they had was at his disposal. The Spanish tin-mines being flopped by the Moors, and none discovered in Germany, the Malabar coast, or the Spanish West Indies, Cornwall and its earls had all the trade of Europe for it. The Jews being banished the kingdom, 18 Edw. I., they were again neglected till the gentlemen of Blackmore, lords of seven tithings best flourished at that time with tin, obtained of Edmund earl of Cornwall, son of Richard king of the Romans, a charter under his own seal, with more explicit grants of privileges, courts, pleas, parliaments, and the toll-tin or 1/10th of all the tin raised. At this time too the right of bounding or dividing... dividing tin-grounds into separate partitions for the encouragement of searching for it seems to have been first appointed, or at least adjudged. This charter was confirmed 33 Edward I. and the Cornish separated from the Devonshire tanners. Their laws, particularly recited in Plowden's Commentaries, p. 237, were further explained 50 Edw. III. confirmed and enlarged by parliament, 8 Rich. II. 3 Ed. IV. 1 Ed. VI. 1 and 2 P. and M. and 2 Eliz. and the whole society divided into four parts under one general warden, to do justice in law and equity, from whose sentence lies an appeal to the duke of Cornwall in council, or for want of a duke of Cornwall to the crown. The lord-warden appoints a vice-warden to determine all stannary disputes every month: he also constitutes four stewards, one for each of the precincts before mentioned, who hold their courts every three weeks, and decide by juries of six persons, with an appeal referred to the vice-warden, lord-warden, and lord of the prince's council. In difficult cases the lord-warden, by commission, issues his precept to the four principal towns of the stannary districts, who each choose six members, and these twenty-four stannators constitute the parliament of tanners. Each stannator chooses an afflant, making a kind of standing council in a different apartment to give information to the prince. Whatever is enacted by the body of tanners must be signed by the stannators, the lord-warden, or his deputy, and by the duke or the king, and then the warrant has with regard to tin affairs all the authority of an act of the whole legislature. Five towns are appointed in the most convenient parts of the county for the tanners to bring their tin to every quarter of a year. These are Liskeard, Leftwich, Truro, Helston, and Penzance, the last added by Charles II. for the convenience of the western tanners. In the time of Henry VIII., there were but two coinages, at Midsummer and Michaelmas: two more at Christmas and Lady-day were added, for which the tanners pay an acknowledgment called Poff groats, or 4d. for every hundred of white tin then coined. The officers appointed by the duke assay it; and if well purified stamp it by a hammer with the duchy seal, the arms of Richard earl of Cornwall, a lion rampant G. crowned O. within a bordure of bezants S.; and this is a permission to the coiner to sell, and is called coining the tin. Every hundred of white tin so coined pays to the duke 4s. The tin of the whole county, which, in Carew's time, in the last century, amounted to 30 or 40,000l. yearly, has for 24 years past amounted one year with another to L. 180,000 or 190,000 sterling. Of this the duke of Cornwall receives for his 4s. duty on every hundred of white tin above L. 10,000 yearly: the bounders or proprietors of the soil about 6th at a medium clear, or about L. 30,000 yearly; the remainder goes to the adventurers in the mine, who are at all the charge of working. Tin is found collected and fixed in lodes and floors, or in grains and bunches in the natural rock, or loose and detached in single separate stones called lodges or streams, or in a continued course of such stones called the beachey or living stream, or in an arenaceous pulverized state. It is most easily discovered by tracing the lodges by the scattered fragments of them called lodges, by leave of the lord of the soil or the bounder. The tin being divided among the lords and adventurers, is stamped and worked at the mill; and being thus dressed is carried under the name of black tin to the melting-house, where it is melted by Welsh pit-coal, and poured into blocks of 320lb. weight, and carried to the coinage town. Mundic, a scarce metal or mineral ore, of a white, braffy, or brown colour, is found in large quantities, intermixed with tin, copper, and lead, and sometimes by itself. Iron ore is found in Cornwall, but the working it does not answer. There is no richer copper, nor a greater variety any where than in this county. Silver, if really found here in the reigns of Edward I. and II. has been rarely found since, nor do the lead-mines answer. Very late discoveries have proved that Cornwall has more gold than was formerly imagined. What is called the Cornish diamond is a figured crystal generally hexagonal and pyramidal, or columnar, or both, of a fine clear water, and of all our bastard diamonds in this nation esteemed the best, and some of different colours, black, yellow, &c. The clearer these are, the better they will bear engraving for seals.

In privileges and language Cornwall seems to be another kingdom. By 21 Elizabeth it was ordered that all duty on Cornish cloth exported should be remitted to every Englishman within the duchy of Cornwall. This was first granted by the black prince, in consideration of their paying 4s. for the coinage of every hundred of tin; whereas Devonshire pays no more than 8d. They have also by grant from Richard earl of Cornwall, confirmed 45 Henry III. freedom to take sand out of the sea and carry it through the country for manure; whereupon in the following reign, on an inquisition made, we find a complaint that Saltash had lately taken 12s. yearly for each barge that carried sand up the Tamar; whereas nothing ought to be demanded. They still continue this ancient method of improving their land, carrying it ten miles up into the country, and great part of the way on horse backs. Mr Ray supposes the virtue of this sand depends chiefly on the salt mixed with it, which is so copious that in many places salt is boiled up out of a lixivium made of the sea sand; and the reason why sand when it has lain long in the sun and wind proves less enriching and useful is, that the dews and rain evaporate great part of its salt. They had likewise a privilege of trading to all parts of the world, granted them by Charles I. in recompence of their loyalty.

The number of boroughs in this small county was surprisingly increased by Edward VI. who added seven to the original six, Mary two, Elizabeth five, making in all 21, sending 40 members besides the county two. Eight of these boroughs had an immediate or remote connection with the demesne lands of the duchy; the rest belonged to religious houses, or powerful families, or were old boroughs, which had legal immunities granted to them by their princes or lords.

The Cornish language is a dialect of that which till the Saxons came in was common to all Britain, and more anciently to Ireland and Gaul; but the inhabitants of this island being dispersed before those conquests, and driven into Wales and Cornwall, and thence into Bretagne, the same language, for want of frequent intercourse, became differently pronounced and written, and in different degrees mixed with different ferent languages. Hence came the Welsh, the Cornish, and the Armorican dialects, whose radicals are so much alike that they are known and admitted by the inhabitants of either country; but the grammar so varied that they cannot converse. The Cornish is reckoned the most pleasing of the three. It was spoken to generally here down to the reign of Henry VIII. that Dr John Moreman, vicar of Mynhinet, is said to have been the first who taught his parishioners the Lord's prayer, the creed, and ten commandments in English, and at the Reformation the natives desired the service in English. The older people in some parishes retained their original language to the middle of the last century; and the last sermon was preached in it in 1678. When Mr Ray was here, 1662, he could find but one person who could write this language; and it is now so nearly extinct, that Mr Barrington, in 1768, could only find one old woman who could scold in it, and she is since dead.