s the most westerly county in England, and also stretches farthest to the south. It is bounded on all sides by the sea, except on the east, where it meets Devonshire in a few places, and is separated from it for the most part by the river Tamar. From this last boundary its breadth diminishes till it terminates on the west at the Land's End, in west longitude 5.41.31., and on the south at the Lizard Point, in north latitude 49.57.30., assuming somewhat of the form of a cornucopia; its boundaries, the Bristol Channel on the north, and the English Channel on the south, meeting in a point at the promontory on the west. It is situated in the diocese of Exeter, belongs to the western circuit, covers an area of 854,770 acres or about 1136 square miles, contains nine hundreds, 201 parishes, twenty-eight market towns, and, in 1851, 355,558 inhabitants, being over 396 to the square mile. The population of the county has increased 54,242 since 1831. Since 1801 the increase has been 84 per cent. The waste lands are about one-fifth of the whole. The surface is very irregular, exhibiting a rapid succession of ascents and descents. The interior is high and generally barren, consisting for the most part of rugged heaths and moors; yet Brown Willy, the highest hill, is only 1368 feet above the level of the sea at low water. Some beautifully picturesque valleys intervene, richly diversified with corn, wood, coppices, orchards, rivulets, and verdant meadows. The stupendous rocks which form the great barriers against the ocean, particularly about the Land's End and the Lizard, are calculated to impress powerfully the imagination of the beholder; whilst the remains of an early age, military, civil, and religious, dispersed over the county, present, in striking contrast, the small scale on which the works of man are conducted, and the instability of human affairs. Throughout the higher lands the soil is a light black earth, intermixed with gravel, the detritus of the granite, or gowran, as it is here called; but a light loam, mixed with slaty matter, is most prevalent on the gentle declivities and lower grounds. Clay of various qualities is found in different places, and is made into bricks for furnaces, or into moulds for casting metals. For nine months in the year the wind blows from points between the west and south, bringing with it from the Atlantic vast bodies of clouds, which, being broken by the narrow ridge-like hills of the county, descend in frequent showers. Storms are more frequent and violent than in the inland parts of England, particularly from the north-west; but from this quarter the wind is generally dry, and brings fair weather. The climate is healthy, and the instances of longevity are numerous. Snow seldom lies for more than a few days. The myrtle, the balm of Gilead, and many other tender plants and shrubs, thrive in the open air; yet the most hardy trees on the sea coast sustain much injury from the violence of the westerly wind, and the sea spray, which it drives with great force before it. The only shrub which seems to bear the sea air is the tamarisk (Tamarix anglica), a native plant with a bitter astringent bark, which grows to the height of ten or twelve feet in seven years in situations most exposed to the sea, forming an admirable shelter, and which, as it bears cutting, might be useful also as a fence; yet it is destroyed by severe frosts. It is easily propagated by cutting. Plantations of the pinaster (Pinus Pinaster) have been raised within the present century as a protection to more tender trees. The sea air will ever present an insuperable barrier to the wooding of this county. The principal rivers are the Tamar, the Lynher, the Looe, the Fawy, the Camel or Alan, and the Fal. The Tamar is the most considerable. It rises on the summit of a moor in the parish of Morvinstow, the most northern in the county, and, taking a southerly direction, falls along with several tributary streams into the spacious basin called the Hamoaze. Issuing thence between Mount Edgcumbe and the Devil's Point, it unites with the waters of the Plym; and the conflux of these rivers with the sea forms the noble roadstead named Plymouth Sound.

The landed property of Cornwall is very much divided, few estates producing a rent of more than L3000, exclusive of the revenues from mines, which are continually fluctuating. What are called the Duchy lands are far more extensive. The income derived from them, and from the duty on the "coinage" of tin, is the only part unalienated of the immense hereditary revenues which formerly constituted an independent provision for the heir-apparent to the crown. This provision was originally made by Edward III. for his eldest son, Edward the Black Prince, whom he created Duke of Cornwall, with special limitation to the first begotten sons of him and his sons, kings of England for ever. The occupiers of these estates are lessees under the Duke of Cornwall, and generally purchase an interest in the land during three lives, the consideration being a fine paid at the time of the grant, and also a reserved rent during the lease. A lease for three lives is common on church lands, and formerly was not unfrequent also on private estates. Leases at rack-rent seldom exceed fourteen years. The farms are in general very small, and, in the western and mining districts, they are chiefly cottage holdings. Agriculture, being but a subordinate concern here, is not generally pursued with much spirit or success; and the fines paid for their long leases, deprive the farmers of that capital which should be invested in the improvement of the soil from year to year. Their best cattle are of the North Devon breed, and are much employed in labour. The oxen are generally put into harness at three years old, and continue until they attain the age of seven or eight, when they are fed for the market. Owing to the roughness of some of the roads it is necessary to have them shod. Four or six oxen are frequently put into a plough. The breed, which is said to be a cross between the Alderney and old Cornish, is light and active, and possessed of considerable powers of endurance. The native sheep of the county, now nearly extinct, belonged to one of the worst breeds in Britain. A great many different breeds have been introduced from other districts. The backs of horses or mules are used more frequently than carts or waggons as the means of transport. Barley, oats, and potatoes are grown in greater quantities than are necessary for the wants of the county; but a large quantity of wheat or flour is imported for the mining districts. In the neighbourhood of Penzance two crops of potatoes are commonly obtained every year. Sea-sand, sea-weed, and damaged pilchards, are used to a considerable extent as manure. With this manure the soil generally yields 70 to 80 bushels of barley, or from 300 to 600 bushels of potatoes to the acre.

Cornwall has long been distinguished by its mineral treasures, of which the most valuable are tin and copper. The strata in which these metals are found extend from the Land's End, in a direction from west to east, to the Dartmoor Hills, in Devonshire, and consist chiefly of granite and a variety of the granwacke, here called killos. The chief seat of the mines now lies in the neighbourhood and to the westward of St Austell, from which place to the Land's End the principal mines are to be found, extending along the northern coast, and keeping a breadth of about seven miles. These metals are commonly found in veins or fissures called lodes, of which the sides or walls do not always consist of the same substance, nor are they equally hard; for, though one side of the fissure may be a dense stone, the other is sometimes as soft as clay. Many lesser veins branch from the great lodes like the boughs of a tree, and at last terminate in threads. The indications of a vein of metal are various, such as scattered fragments of ore, called shades, the metallic taste of springs, and the lustre of pebbles in the beds of streams. Many rich lodes have been discovered by working drifts across the county, in the directions of north and south. From the course of the metals being from west to east, the lode will thus be cut at right angles. The use of the divining rod, now become obsolete, is said to have been introduced by the Phoenicians, who worked the tin mines long before the Christian era. See Mining.

Tin is found collected and fixed, and also in a loose and dispersed form. In the former state, it is either in a lode, or a floor which is a horizontal layer of the ore; or interspersed in grains and small masses in the natural rock. The same lode that has continued perpendicular for several fathoms is sometimes found to extend suddenly into a floor. In its dispersed form it is met with either in a pulverized state, in separate stones called shades, or in a continued course of stones called a stream. These streams are of different breddish, seldom less than a fathom, and often scattered, though in different quantities, over the whole tract in which they are found. When several streams meet they frequently make a very rich floor. The principal stream work is at Carnon, between Truro and Penryn.

The most common state in which tin ore is found in this county is the calciform, or glass-like; and its most prevalent matrix is either an argillaceous or a siliceous substance, or a stone composed of both, called by the miners caple. None of the calcareous kinds ever appear contiguous to the ore, except the fluorites. The oxides of iron and arsenic are those with which the tin is most frequently blended. When raised from the mine it is divided into as many shares or doles as there are lords and adventurers. Every mine possesses the privilege of having the ore distributed on the adjacent fields. It is generally pounded or stamped on the spot; and when it is small enough to pass through the holes of an iron grate fixed in one end of the box where the lifters work, it is carried by a small stream into pits, from which it is transferred into a large vat, washed, and rendered sufficiently clear for the smelting-house. The tin, when wrought into metal, is cast into blocks weighing from 2½ to 3 cwt., each, which are not saleable till assayed by the proper officers, and stamped with the duchy seal. This is termed coining the tin. Since the reign of Henry VIII., the coines have been held regularly four times annually, at Lady Day, Midsummer, Michaelmas, and Christmas, at the stannary towns of Launceston, Lostwithiel, Truro, and Helston, to which Penzance was added by Charles II. The annual produce of the tin mines is about 500 tons. The value of the metal is at present L70 per ton.

Copper ores are found in great abundance and variety. Veins are frequently discovered in cliffs that are laid bare by the sea. The most encouraging indication of a rich ore is an earthy iron ochre, called gossan, which is of a brownish colour, and crumbles in the atmosphere. The ore does not lie at any particular depth; but it is a general rule, that, when copper is discovered in any fissure, the lode should be sunk upon, as it commonly proves best at some distance below the surface. When the metal has been properly refined, it is poured into oblong iron moulds, each containing about 150 lb. weight. The annual produce of copper is about 10,000 tons, valued at about L95 per ton. Copper mines were not worked in Cornwall before 1700.

Many other minerals have been found in this county, and much capital and labour have been employed in working some of them, without their yielding any adequate return; yet the success has been in a few instances so great, that new mines are opened as fast as the old ones are abandoned. We can only mention some of the more important. Lead mines are not numerous; and the kind of ore most frequently found is galena, or sulphuret of lead, which is met with both crystallized and in masses. The principal mines are Huel Pool and Huel Rose, near Helston. Gold has been discovered, but until lately not in such quantity as to warrant operations to procure it. Within a short time it has been found diffused in the gossan in minute particles that promise a remunerative return. Silver is reported to have been obtained here in so large a quantity, in the reigns of Edward I. and Edward III., as materially to aid the warlike enterprises of these monarchs; but recent searches have not been so successful. Iron ores, sulphuret of iron, of various colours, often intermixed with the copper lodes, bismuth, zinc, antimony, cobalt, arsenic, manganese, wolfram, titanium, and molybdenum or sulphuret of molybdenum, are all found here, most of them in considerable abundance. According to Phillips' map of the mines in 1800, there were Cornwall, wrought at that time forty-five of copper, twenty-eight of tin, eighteen of copper and tin, two of lead, one of silver, one of lead and silver, one of copper and silver, one of copper and cobalt, one of tin and cobalt, and one of antimony.

Among the other mineral substances of this county, those that deserve to be mentioned for their value are slate, of which there is an excellent quarry wrought near Tintagel, in the northern part of the county; a freestone, resembling the Portland and Bath stone, in the parishes of Carantoc and the lower St Colomb; and the celebrated soap-rock steatite, between the Lizard and Mullion, used in the manufacture of porcelain, and rented by the proprietors of an earthen-ware establishment in Worcester. But the most important of these substances is what is called the China-stone, found in the parish of St Stephen, near St Austell, which forms a principal ingredient in all the Staffordshire pottery. It is a decomposed granite, the felspar of which has lost the property of fusibility. At Truro it has been manufactured into retorts and crucibles. To these may be added the Cornish diamonds, supposed to be the finest in England, consisting of beautifully transparent quartz, crystallized in six-sided prisms; and a curious production called the swimming stone, found in a copper mine near Redruth, the cellular structure of which renders it lighter than water.

Of the fish which frequent the Cornish coast, the pilchard is the most common and valuable. In size and form it differs but little from the common herring. Immense shoals appear during the summer and autumn, the first generally arriving at the Land's End in the middle of July. The principal fisheries on the southern coast are in Mount's Bay, and thence eastward to Devonshire; and, on the northern side, at St Ives. The pilchards are caught in nets called seines, each of which is managed by three boats, containing from seventeen to twenty-four men. The largest of these nets is two hundred and twenty fathoms long, sixteen fathoms deep in the middle, and fourteen at each end. When brought on shore the fish are carried to storehouses, or cellars as they are termed, where the small and broken fish are picked out. They are then disposed in layers on the pavement of the cellar, salt being strewed between every layer. In this state they remain for about six weeks, after which they are taken up, washed, and placed in hogsheads, in which, by means of a powerful lever, they are pressed so closely as when turned out to appear in a compact state. By this process the oil is extracted, which runs out of the casks through holes made for the purpose. Forty-eight hogsheads generally yield a tun of two hundred and fifty-two gallons. The annual take of pilchards averages about 21,000 hogsheads. The blowfish or fin fish, the grampus, the porpoise or sea-hog, the blue shark, and the sea-fox, visit the coasts of this county. Among the Squalidae is the Squatina anguless, named the monk or angel-fish. The turbot, the sculpin, and the singular fish called the sun-fish, are often taken. Mackerel is caught in great plenty on the southern coast; as also the red mullet, and the John Dory; and conger eels of an extremely large size, weighing from sixty to a hundred and twenty pounds, are met with near the shores. Oysters are also found in great abundance.

The name of Cornwall is supposed by some to be compounded of Corn, signifying "a rock" in the British language, and Gauls or Waals, the name which 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 in Wales, retired on the intrusion of the Saxons, and opposed their further conquests. In this part of the island they formed a kingdom (A.D. 446) which existed for many years afterwards under different princes, amongst whom were Ambrosius Aurelius, and the justly celebrated Arthur; nor were they subdued till the middle of the seventh century; from which time Cornwall was considered as subject to the Cornwalls, West Saxon kings, who began their sovereignty in 519, and continued it till 828, under eighteen sovereigns, the last of whom was the great Egbert, who subdued all the others, and, by uniting them, formed the kingdom of England. On that occasion this county was included in the county of Devon, then the ninth division. In 1337 Edward III. erected it into a dukedom, and invested with it Edward the Black Prince. But this privilege, 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 made out in their name, and not in that of the king.

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 part of 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 other languages. Hence arose the Welsh, the Cornish, and the Armorice dialects, the roots of which are so much alike that they are known and admitted by the inhabitants of either country; but the grammar is so varied that they cannot converse. The Cornish is reckoned the most pleasing of the three. It was spoken so 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 to have the service in English.

Among the old churches in the county may be mentioned St Neot's at Truro, with its celebrated stained windows; Duloe with its curious sculptures in slate; and the cathedrals of St Germain and Bodmin.

Cornwall returns four members to parliament for the county, and ten for the burghs.