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Cornish Characters and Strange Events Flashcards

S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould · Public domain edition · 423 cards · 116 chapters

S. Baring-Gould’s Cornish Characters and Strange Events argues that Cornwall’s distinctive character was shaped by isolation, mining life, and nonconformity, and that lesser-known figures often reveal this better than famous ones. The deck covers his preface, his claims about mining and character, and anecdotes and episodes involving figures such as Pengelly and Forster.

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Chapter 1 · Question

According to the preface, what event brought Cornwall into closer association with English thought and progress?

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Section 13 cards

According to the preface, what event brought Cornwall into closer association with English thought and progress?
The author states that Cornwall, peopled mainly by Celts with an infusion of English blood, stood apart from the rest of England much as Wales did, though in lesser degree. What brought it into more intimate association with English thought, interests, and progress was the loss of the old Cornish tongue.
Chapter 1
What effect does the author claim underground mining life has on mind and character?
The author argues that Cornwall's mineral wealth drew thousands underground, and that this underground life has a peculiar effect on mind and character. He says it is cramping in many ways, but tends to develop a good deal of religious enthusiasm that occasionally breaks forth in wild forms of fanaticism.
Chapter 1
Why does the author focus on lesser-known Cornish figures rather than the greatest ones?
The author explains that his object was not to retell the lives of the greatest sons of Cornwall, since those lives may be read in the Dictionary of National Biography. Instead he chronicles stories of lesser luminaries about whom less is known and little is easily accessible, making the book a companion volume to Devonshire Characters.
Chapter 1

Section 23 cards

What did the labourer at Lyme Regis tell Pengelly about headless fossil snakes?
The labourer claimed the fossils were creatures drowned in Noah's flood and buried in mud that became rock. Asked why some snakes lacked heads, he said the Bible foretold that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent's head. The author presents this as the workman's reasoning, not as fact.
Chapter 2
How did Pengelly's father decide whether to go to sea?
After his own father drowned near home, Richard Pengelly was urged to abandon the sea, but his restlessness returned. He prayed earnestly that his father's spirit might appear, smiling or frowning, to show approval or disapproval. He believed the prayer answered when, while ploughing, he saw his father pass by looking intently and smilingly at him. He became a sailor at seventeen.
Chapter 2
What did Pengelly's shipmates think of the Spectator, and why?
The crew allowed Pengelly to read aloud during tailoring days, but the Spectator was not a favourite. Some portions were held nonsensical and others lacking in truthfulness, so it was generally called the 'lying book.' This ill repute was largely due to the story of Fadlallah in No. 578.
Chapter 2

Section 34 cards

What did Pengelly find in the Brixham cave's third and fourth beds?
Worked flints were found in the third and fourth beds only, while bones occurred in the stalagmite and in the first, third, and fourth beds. Where the third bed filled the cavern up to the rock, its upper portion contained neither bones nor flints. The bones included mammoth, rhinoceros, urus, hyæna, cave lion, and cave bear.
Chapter 3
What sequence of deposits did Kent's Cavern floor show, from top down?
The floor showed, in succession: (1) blocks of limestone, sometimes large, clearly fallen from the roof; (2) black mould from a few inches to over a foot deep; (3) granular stalagmite about a foot thick formed by roof drip; (4) red loam with limestone fragments; (5) a breccia of angular limestone, pebbles, and sandstone in reddish sandy calcareous paste.
Chapter 3
What did Pengelly advise the scientific student to do?
Pengelly advised: get a sufficient number of perfectly trustworthy facts; interpret them with rigorous logic; have courage to avow your convictions on suitable occasions; and don't be impatient or annoyed if friends reject your conclusions or even call you bad names.
Chapter 3
How did Forster's conduct at Preston contrast with his force's position?
Forster, commanding the Jacobites, fell into fright and went to bed; roused by Lord Kenmure, he adopted a plan executed only as street barricades, leaving the Ribble bridge and the hollow road undefended. Though he had scarcely lost a man and his force more than doubled the regulars, he lost heart and sent Colonel Oxburgh to propose capitulation.
Chapter 3

Section 44 cards

What did the Highlanders propose at Preston, and what did their leaders decide?
The Highlanders proposed rushing sword in hand to cut their way through the King's troops. Their leaders judged this too hazardous and counselled surrender. They gave up Lord Derwentwater and Colonel Mackintosh as hostages and induced the clans to lay down arms. Only seventeen men, English and Scotch, were killed in the defence of Preston.
Chapter 4
Who was captured at Preston, and how many prisoners were taken?
Fourteen hundred men were made prisoners by a thousand, or at most twelve hundred, English horse. Captured lords included Derwentwater, Widdrington, Nithsdale, Winton, Carnwark, Kenmure, Nairn, and Charles Murray, plus members of ancient northern, Scottish, and Lancashire families. The Lancastrian peasants escaped the town. The prisoners were sent to London under Brigadier Panter and a hundred of Lumley's Horse.
Chapter 4
What was the Logan Rock, and what did Lieutenant Goldsmith do to it in 1824?
The Logan Rock was a granite mass of about ninety to one hundred tons, poised so exactly that a person could rock it by hand. On April 8, 1824, Lieutenant Hugh Colvill Goldsmith of H.M.S. Nimble landed with men and, after handspikes failed, had them push it into violent oscillation until it toppled over. It was caught by a cleft in the rock rather than rolling into the sea.
Chapter 4
What did the Admiralty require of Goldsmith, and how was the cost handled?
Goldsmith was ordered either to restore the Logan Rock at his own cost or forfeit his commission. Davies Gilbert complained to the Admiralty, requested the block be replaced with dockyard apparatus, and subscribed £150. The Admiralty lent plant and men but stipulated Goldsmith must bear the entire cost. In his letter to his mother he called the act inadvertent and vowed to put the 'bauble' back.
Chapter 4

Section 54 cards

Why did Goldsmith throw down the Logan Rock, according to the chapter?
The author argues Goldsmith acted out of conceit: because Borlase had pronounced it impossible to displace the rock, Goldsmith resolved to displace it. The chapter calls his later letter disingenuous, noting he claims he meant only to "move" it, though he had brought handspikes to throw it down, and he omits that the Admiralty gave him the choice of replacing it or losing his commission.
Chapter 5
What was the result of the Logan Rock's re-erection for Goldsmith?
On November 2nd, before large crowds, the block was raised with Goldsmith superintending, but it was no longer so perfectly balanced: one witness said it "rocked differently, though well enough to satisfy the people." Lieut. Edye states the foolhardy act left Goldsmith pecuniarily ruined, while locals profited by showing visitors the fallen stone. He died at sea in 1841 without advancement.
Chapter 5
What is uncertain about Hugh Peters's parentage and early life?
The chapter says his origin is obscure: he was son of Thomas Dickwood alias Peters and Martha, daughter of John Treffry, and is said to have been born in 1599 to a Fowey merchant descended from Dutch refugees, though Dickwood is not a Dutch name. Neither Hugh nor his father with the alias appears in the well-authenticated Peters pedigree, so the author suspects his father was a bastard of that family.
Chapter 5
How does the chapter characterize the religious state of England after Henry VIII?
The chapter says Henry VIII aimed to free the Church of England from the Pope while remaining Catholic, but after his death ultra-Protestants were encouraged, churches plundered, and fanaticism loosed. Quoting Froude, it states three-quarters of the English were Catholics attached to traditional doctrine, and calls the two protectorates during Edward VI's minority a disgraceful page marked by debased currency and peculation.
Chapter 5

Section 64 cards

What advice does the chapter say would have made Mary a popular monarch?
The author argues that if Mary had accepted Charles V's advice, she could have reigned as a popular monarch and settled the Church of England on Catholic-but-not-Papal lines acceptable to nobles, commons, and clergy. Instead she looked to the see of Peter for support, alienated her people, and the Smithfield fires revived the discredited fanatics.
Chapter 6
How does the chapter describe the clergy of the Elizabethan and early Stuart Church?
The author argues there was no enthusiasm in the clergy. Bishops were grasping, self-seeking worldlings, with Matthew Parker the best of an ignoble crew. Froude is quoted saying Parker amassed wealth by unscrupulous practices, including a graduated scale of fees for admitting children to benefices. Many clergy entered Orders only for rectories, glebe, and tithe.
Chapter 6
What was the religious position of the bulk of the English people, per the chapter?
The chapter says the great majority of nobility and gentry clung to the doctrine and ceremonies of the ancient Church while opposing Papal claims. Between Papists and Puritans sat the vast bulk of the people, looking this way and that, deeming all religion foolishness and self-interest the only thing worth seeking. The Church was a hodgepodge of conflicting doctrines.
Chapter 6
What does the chapter report about Hugh Peters' conduct in New England and after?
Peters ministered at Salem over seven years while trading, called 'the father of our commerce.' He was present fighting the Pequot Indians and wrote requesting a share of women and children prisoners, who were used as slaves. The chapter says money contributed through his motion to Christianize Indians was a cheat. He later left for England and became a chaplain to Parliamentary forces.
Chapter 6

Section 74 cards

What political and religious system did the Independents advocate?
The Independents rejected all ecclesiastical establishments, admitted no spiritual authority of one man over another, and allowed no magistrate to intervene in religion; each voluntarily united congregation was an independent church exercising its own jurisdiction. Politically they were pure republicans, seeking abolition of monarchy and even aristocracy, and projecting a commonwealth in which all men should be equal. Their leaders were Vane, Cromwell, Fiennes, and St. John, with Hugh Peters as their prophet.
Chapter 7
How did Pride's Purge alter the House of Commons?
On the officers' orders, a regiment of horse and one of foot were placed at the door of the Parliament House. Colonel Pride entered and took into custody about forty members disposed to obstruct the army's cause, denied entrance to about a hundred more, and others were ordered to leave. The House was thinned to a hundred and fifty or two hundred, most of them army officers. The secluded members protested, but those remaining voted the protestation false, scandalous, and seditious.
Chapter 7
What accusations were made about Peters and the King's execution?
Rumour held that the masked executioner was Peters himself; he denied it, claiming he was ill in bed that day, though he had been preaching not many days before. The executioner was never discovered, and Peters was not charged as such at his 1660 trial. _Epulæ Thyestæ_ (1649) accused him of the deed. The author argues Peters cannot be acquitted of being a regicide, comparing him to the trumpeter in the fable who sounded the charge.
Chapter 7
What was Peters' role as a Triers member under Cromwell?
Peters was one of the Triers appointed by Cromwell to test parochial clergy and eject those judged unfit in morals or theological opinion. Parishioners with grudges laid grievances before the Grand Committee; Clarendon says these were read with delight and referred to the Committee about Religion, mostly concerning bowing at the name of Jesus and receiving the sacrament at the altar rails. The key question put to each cleric was whether he had any experience of a work of grace.
Chapter 7

Section 83 cards

What did Hugh Peters admit about his role on the law-amending commission?
According to his own Legacy, Peters said that when he was a trier of others he went to hear and gain experience rather than to judge, and when called to mend laws he was there rather to pray than to mend laws. Whitelocke noted Peters was active on the committee but understood little law, was opinionative, and often cited Dutch legal proceedings in which he was mistaken.
Chapter 8
How did the Dutch use Peters in their peace negotiations with England?
In early 1653 the Dutch commissioned Colonel Doleman and others to learn leading Parliament men's views and to win over Hugh Peters as Cromwell's influential chaplain. Peters, who had tenderness for the Dutch, interceded for them, and the Dutch gave him £300,000 to bribe and purchase amity with Parliament and the Protector. The chapter says a good share likely stuck to his fingers, and the attempt failed.
Chapter 8
What weaknesses of Peters does Lockart's letter from Dunkirk reveal?
Lockart wrote that Peters was vastly loquacious, so the Colonel had to ensure he did not importune Cardinal Mazarin with too long speeches. He was also conceited, self-opinionated, and meddlesome, interfering in matters beyond his province. Lockart said Peters took leave three or four times but something always hindered his return, and the Colonel was glad to be rid of him.
Chapter 8

Section 92 cards

How did Cornish wrestling differ from Devon wrestling?
The author states Cornish wrestling was less brutal because no kicking was allowed. Devon wrestlers wore boots soaked in bullock's blood and hardened in fire, using them to hack opponents' shins; their opponents wore skillibegs, bands of twisted hay wrapped round the legs below the knee as protection.
Chapter 9
What was the outcome of Polkinghorne's 1826 match with Abraham Cann?
The match was for £200 a side, best of three back-falls, held on Tamar Green, Morice Town, Plymouth, on 23 October 1826 before seventeen thousand spectators. Disputes reduced the umpires to two, a fall by Polkinghorne was disallowed, and he left the ring; by his default the stakes went to Cann. Polkinghorne refused a rematch unless Cann discarded his shoes.
Chapter 9

Section 104 cards

What event inspired Henry Trengrouse to invent a rocket life-saving apparatus?
Trengrouse, a Helston cabinet-maker, witnessed the wreck of H.M.S. Anson at Loe Bar on 29th December 1807, when over a hundred people drowned. He fell ill for nearly a week afterward, and the scene made an indelible impression on his mind. He then devoted himself to finding a means of establishing communication between a wrecked vessel and the shore.
Chapter 10
How did Trengrouse's rocket apparatus differ from Captain Manby's mortar?
The chapter states Trengrouse's rocket was lighter and more portable than a mortar-fired shot, and used a special line that would not kink or snap because the rocket's velocity increased gradually rather than suddenly. The rocket also indicated its track by a trail of fire, visible at night, and could be fired from either ship or shore. Manby's mortar was cumbrous and dangerous, and men were killed during tests.
Chapter 10
What did Trengrouse sacrifice for his life-saving inventions, and how was he rewarded?
The author states Trengrouse spent £3,000 on experiments, cut off the entail on the family estate Priske and sold it, and sacrificed his capital, business, and health. He made repeated winter coach journeys to London seeking government adoption, meeting only discouragement. He declined a Russian invitation with 'My country first,' and the author says that country allowed him to die penniless.
Chapter 10
What other safety devices did Trengrouse invent besides the rocket apparatus?
The chapter credits Trengrouse with inventing the cork jacket or 'life preserver,' which the author says was a success and has never been improved on, saving many hundreds of lives. He also built a model of an unsinkable lifeboat, equal to present Royal Lifeboat Association boats except for the self-righting principle. His rocket apparatus was finally exhibited before Admiral Sir Charles Rowley in 1818, and a committee reported favourably.
Chapter 10

Section 114 cards

How did the British government compensate Trengrouse for its rocket order?
Government first ordered twenty sets of life-preserving rockets, then decided to manufacture the apparatus itself and paid Trengrouse £50, the supposed profit he would have made on the order. The chapter notes this was all his ungrateful country gave him, though in 1821 the Society of Arts awarded him a silver medal and thirty guineas.
Chapter 11
What did Trengrouse say on his deathbed about his rocket apparatus?
Turning from the wall with a bright, hopeful smile, he told his son that if the son lived to be as old as he was, he would find the rocket apparatus all along the shores. These were his last words before he passed away minutes later. The chapter notes apparatus stood at 300 stations, though not aboard vessels as he had principally hoped.
Chapter 11
What did the 1907 Board of Trade report say about lives saved by life-saving apparatus?
For the year ending 30 June 1907, 268 lives were saved by the life-saving apparatus, 127 more than the previous year and 67 above the ten-year average. The total saved since 1870 was 8,924, excluding many more saved by ropes and other assistance from shore.
Chapter 11
What errors did Mrs. Bray and Cyrus Redding make about the Ruddle ghost story?
Mrs. Bray claimed the story was false because no Dingley family existed in Launceston, yet James Dingley had been instituted to the vicarage of South Petherwin, where the ghost appeared, and the name persists there. Redding said no clergyman named Ruddle had been incumbent in Launceston for two hundred years, though Ruddle's monument stands in the church and he held the living from 1663 until 1699.
Chapter 11

Section 124 cards

Who actually wrote the 'Remarkable Passage of an Apparition,' and who proved it?
The narrative was not invented by Defoe but was genuinely written by John Ruddle himself. The late Mr. Alfred Robbins demonstrated this conclusively in the Cornish Magazine, 1898. The chapter notes that Mr. Hawker of Morwenstow had fabricated a 'Diurnall' of Ruddle which adopted Drew's error and altered the date, making his version disagree with the record.
Chapter 12
What did the boy say Dorothy Dingley's ghost did when they met?
The boy told Ruddle the woman had lived as a neighbour to his father and died about eight years earlier. She never spoke to him, but passed by hastily and always left the footpath to him, commonly meeting him twice or three times in the breadth of the field. He first took notice about a year before and kept it to himself a while.
Chapter 12
Why did the parents and Rev. Samuel Williams suspect the boy's ghost story?
Neither the parents nor the parson who first told Ruddle believed the boy saw anything; they suspected he was lazy and used the apparition as an excuse for not going to school. They laughed at him, chided him, and commanded him to keep to his school and put such foppery out of his head. Ruddle, however, saw the boy and was convinced of his sincerity.
Chapter 12
What two observations convinced Ruddle the apparition was not fear or fancy?
Ruddle noted that a spaniel dog following the company unregarded barked and ran away as the spectrum passed, concluding it was not their fear or fancy that made the apparition. He also observed the spectrum's motion was not by steps and moving of the feet but a kind of gliding, like children upon ice or a boat down a swift river.
Chapter 12

Section 134 cards

Who actually wrote the original Ruddle ghost narrative, and how did Defoe alter it?
The original manuscript was written by Parson John Ruddle; Defoe's printed account omits the Bligh family names and changes Dorothy Dingley into Mrs. Veale. Ruddle's original MS. no longer exists, but a copy made by his son William Ruddle survives, and James Wakeman attested in 1730 that he copied it from William's handwriting. Mr. Robbins says the proof of Ruddle authorship leaves nothing to be desired.
Chapter 13
Why does the chapter doubt that Dorothy Durant was the ghost?
Dr. Lee confused Dorothy Durant with Dorothy Dingley. The South Petherwin register records Dorothy Durant's burial on 1st May, 1677, aged eighty-seven, but the boy's story places Dorothy Dingley's death around 1657. The registers do not go back before August 1656, and contain no 1656 or 1657 burial entry for Dorothy Dingley. The author suggests the ghost may instead have been her mother, but her Christian name is unknown.
Chapter 13
What first drew young John Couch Adams to astronomy?
While tending his father's sheep on Laneast Down, Adams lay in the heather studying the night sky and learned to distinguish planets from fixed stars. He watched constellations like Charles's Wain and Orion, and his father often chided him for staying out late star-gazing. His mother owned a simple astronomy book that had belonged to her father, which he devoured, and he built a sundial and a cardboard instrument for measuring the sun's altitude.
Chapter 13
How did Adams's work on Uranus lead toward the discovery of Neptune?
At twenty-two Adams noticed disturbances in Uranus's course and reasoned they must come from the attraction of an unseen planet. According to Caroline Fox's reminiscences, he worked from the unknown to the known, a reversed method, and sent his mathematical evidence to Airy, the Astronomer Royal, who locked the papers in his desk from carelessness and incredulity. Leverrier independently produced a demonstration, which was then verified by observation.
Chapter 13

Section 144 cards

Who first publicly linked Adams's name to the discovery of Neptune, and when?
Sir John Herschel made the first mention of Adams as discoverer of Neptune in the Athenæum on October 3rd, 1845. Professor Challis's letter to the same journal on 17th October described in detail the transactions between Adams, Airy, and himself. The French were highly incensed that an obscure Englishman had forestalled Leverrier, and Airy was annoyed at his own negligence in not examining Adams's memoir.
Chapter 14
What did Adams say, forty years later, he had actually wished for?
The author reports that Adams had no conceit or pride and did not care to have his name proclaimed as discoverer. Forty years later he said simply that all he had wished was that the English astronomers to whom he communicated his calculations, pointing out the precise spot where a planet was to be found, would have turned their telescopes there and discovered it, so England might have had full credit.
Chapter 14
What honours did Adams refuse or decline?
According to the chapter, Adams refused knighthood in 1847 and declined the office of Astronomer Royal on Airy's retirement in 1881. His long-suppressed investigation was not laid before the Royal Astronomical Society until November 13th, 1846, and the publication stirred controversy, dividing the scientific world into Adamite and anti-Adamite factions.
Chapter 14
How does the chapter describe Daniel Gumb's rock-cut dwelling near the Cheesewring?
Gumb, a stone-cutter born in Linkinhorne, excavated beneath a huge inclined granite block near the Cheesewring, lining the sides with stone and lime and making a chimney by perforating the earth. Bond, seeing it in 1802, described a cavern about twelve feet deep, roofed by one flat stone of many tons, supported by natural rock and small stone pillars, with 'D. Gumb' and a date engraved by the door.
Chapter 14

Section 153 cards

What did the boy Edwards claim to see at the Tower?
Edwards, a schoolboy of twelve or thirteen, said he slipped into the Tower yard to see the King and Duke of York. After they left, while playing chuck-farthing, he saw a hand thrust from a window throw down a bloody razor; a maid in a white hood and stuff coat took it up and went inside, and he heard cries of 'Murder!' Braddon later found the boy prevaricating, and the boy's sister said Braddon forced him to sign a deposition.
Chapter 15
What happened to Braddon after he reported the Essex affair?
Braddon laid information before the King and Council on July 20, producing the boy's written deposition. Hearing a rumour that the death was already discussed at Frome Selwood, he set off to investigate but was arrested at Salisbury, imprisoned, and brought back to London. At the King's Bench trial in February 1683-4, he was found guilty of conspiring to spread a false report that Essex was murdered and of trying to suborn witnesses.
Chapter 15
How did the Crown handle the Rye House Plot and the association scheme?
The chapter says Monmouth, Essex, Shaftesbury, Howard, Russell, Sidney, and Hampden met to press for a Parliament and a Protestant succession, though they disagreed on aims: Monmouth wanted legitimacy and the crown, Sidney and Essex wanted a commonwealth, Russell and Hampden only exclusion. More desperate spirits schemed the Rye House assassination, but the chapter states there is no evidence the noble schemers knew of it. Both projects were betrayed, and Crown lawyers blended them into one.
Chapter 15

Section 164 cards

What sentences did Braddon and Speke receive in April 1684 for trying to blame Essex's murder on the government?
Braddon was fined £2000 and Speke £1000 to the King; both had to find sureties for good behaviour during their lives and be committed to the King's Bench prison until they did so. They had been convicted the previous term for endeavoring to lay the murder of the late Earl of Essex upon the Government.
Chapter 16
What did Bomeny, Essex's valet, testify about the Earl's nails and the penknife?
Bomeny stated the Earl had long nails and that morning asked for a penknife to pare them. He sent footman William Turner for one with the breakfast provisions; Turner forgot it, so Essex began cutting his nails with his razor and the footman was sent again. Then the King and Duke of York arrived, causing bustle, and Bomeny left the room.
Chapter 16
What did the Lords' committee conclude about Essex's death, and how did Lady Essex and friends respond?
The committee, consisting wholly of zealous Whigs, continued inquiries until all reasonable men were convinced Essex had fallen by his own hand. Lady Essex, his brother, and his most intimate friends then requested the investigation be pursued no further. The author notes this inquiry, unlike Jeffreys's, was not open to suspicion, yet Braddon remained unpersuaded it was murder.
Chapter 16
How does the author contrast Braddon's and Speke's motives regarding the Essex affair?
The author argues Braddon was sincere, convinced a murder had been committed, but lacked a well-balanced mind to weigh evidence. Speke, by contrast, cared nothing whether a crime occurred, so long as he could disturb men's minds with suspicion that one had been committed by the King's brother and heir presumptive. Macaulay is quoted calling Speke base and depraved.
Chapter 16

Section 171 cards

What happened to Thomasine's three husbands and her wealth?
She married the widowed mercer Richard Bunsby, who died after three years leaving her everything. She then married merchant John Gall, widowed again after five years, and in 1497 married Sir John Percival, later Lord Mayor of London. Each husband left her his possessions, making her a rich widow.
Chapter 17

Section 194 cards

What did Edmund Norway dream on the night of the murder, and what detail troubled him?
Edmund Norway dreamt two men attacked and murdered his brother Nevell, one seizing the horse's bridle and snapping a pistol twice without a report, then striking him down and dragging him across the road. He noted a house on the left side of the road, but remembered the cottage as being on the right, and consoled himself that an incorrect dream might be wholly false.
Chapter 19
Why was Edmund Norway's dream about the house's position actually accurate?
Edmund had remembered the cottage as standing on the left of the road, but during his absence from England the road from Bodmin to Wadebridge had been altered. The new route placed the house exactly as he saw it in the dream, the reverse of his memory. The chapter presents this as a remarkable point.
Chapter 19
What did the Lightfoot brothers claim was their intended target, and why was it disbelieved?
Both brothers protested they had not planned to murder Mr. Norway but the Rev. Mr. Molesworth, parson of S. Breock, whom they supposed was returning with tithe money in his pocket. This did not agree with evidence that William Lightfoot had watched Norway counting his money at Bodmin and then made off.
Chapter 19
How did Sir William Lower's career and character end, according to the chapter?
Lower backed the King, was knighted after being taken prisoner at Abingdon, then left England in 1655 for Cologne and Holland, where he translated French works and wrote a royal folio on Charles II's stay in Holland. He inherited family estates in 1661 but died in 1662. Dr. Richard Lower called him 'an ill poet and a worse man.'
Chapter 19

Section 204 cards

What did the panicked Penzance residents initially believe about the men from the wrecked ship?
On the morning of 30 September, Penzance residents saw ferocious-looking men with baggy trousers, red fezes, scimitars and brass-mounted pistols. They fled back to town crying that the Turks had landed and meant to massacre the inhabitants, plunder their houses, and carry away wives and children into captivity as galley-slaves or for harems. In fact the men were the crew of an Algerine corsair.
Chapter 20
What second panic seized Penzance after learning the captives were Algerine pirates, and how was it handled?
The citizens feared the pirates had brought the plague. A cordon of volunteers surrounded "The Folly" to prevent all intercourse, the Government was informed, and troops were ordered to march from Plymouth to surround the district. The local authorities then sent word that no such measure was needed and the orders were countermanded. After days with no plague case, people were allowed to approach the strangers.
Chapter 20
According to Hals, what crime was Lady Killigrew accused of, and what was her fate?
Hals says Jane Killigrew, widow of Sir John, boarded two Dutch Hansa ships driven into Falmouth and, with ruffians, murdered two Spanish merchants and took two hogsheads of pieces of eight. The offenders were tried at Launceston and executed, except Lady Killigrew, the principal contriver, who obtained a pardon from Queen Elizabeth through Sir John Arundell and Sir Nicholas Hals.
Chapter 20
What corrections does the author make to Hals's account of the Killigrew affair?
The author argues Hals made several blunders. The affair occurred in January 1583, and the Dame Killigrew involved was Mary, wife of Sir John, grandfather of the Sir John who divorced Jane. The ship was Spanish, not a Hanseatic merchant vessel. Also, the two Spanish merchants were not murdered; they were ashore and escaped, while Lady Killigrew's ruffians drowned the whole crew.
Chapter 20

Section 214 cards

Who did the inquiry find had contrived the plot to seize the Spanish ship?
The inquiry by Sir Richard Grenville and Mr. Edmund Tremayne concluded that the whole plot was contrived by Dame Killigrew. She ordered Hawkins and Kendal to board the Spaniard with a party of sailors and fishermen, and sent a messenger to the Governor of St. Mawes Castle asking him not to hinder the merchants from sailing that night. The boarding-party was harboured in Pendennis Castle, whose Governor was her husband, Sir John Killigrew.
Chapter 21
How did Hawkins and Kendal escape conviction at the first Penryn meeting?
At the meeting at Penryn, evidence implicated Hawkins and Kendal, but they rebutted it with testimony from Elizabeth Bowden, who kept a small tavern at Penryn. She swore that the two men were drinking in her inn up to the time the piracy was committed. The jury returned an open verdict: the ship had certainly been stolen, but by whom there was no evidence to show.
Chapter 21
What happened to Hawkins, Kendal, and Lady Killigrew after the truth came out?
After the thorough investigation ordered by the Earl of Bedford, the truth was elicited from reluctant witnesses. Hawkins, the ringleader, and Kendal were hanged at Launceston. Lady Killigrew, however, escaped, as Hals relates. Sir John died the next year, and when Lady Killigrew died is not known. The leather that fell to her share had been placed in a cask and buried in the garden at Arwenack.
Chapter 21
How did John Ralfs spend his time and relate to people in Penzance?
Ralfs settled in Penzance in 1837 and rambled the moors and bogs searching for rare plants, often on hands and knees. He was reserved and taciturn, never happier than when alone, disliked society and especially that of women, and his deafness made conversation difficult. Locals regarded him as 'a bit total,' though no one had anything but a kind word for him, as he never injured anyone.
Chapter 21

Section 224 cards

What did Bignell discover about the scorpion-like creature on house-flies?
Bignell found that the scorpion-like, all-claw creature found on the common house-fly is not a true parasite. It simply likes a free ride: when a fly comes within reach it grips with its huge claws, clings and rides, then lets go and drops off when tired of the world.
Chapter 22
How did the marines deceive the rebel prisoners at Fort S. Julian?
The guard over the prisoners was small, so every evening at sunset all marines from the ships landed and marched to the fort with fixed bayonets, ordered to make as much noise as possible. At night they stole silently back to their ships. The ruse convinced the prisoners they were guarded by a large force.
Chapter 22
What did Bignell achieve in entomology, especially regarding parasites?
Bignell discovered fifty-one parasites, nineteen new to science and thirty-two new to Britain, as quoted in the Entomological Society of London's proceedings. One new species was named Mesoleius Bignellii after him. The Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society awarded him three medals, and the Ray Society published his parasite lists in its volumes on British butterfly and moth larvae.
Chapter 22
How did Bignell attract male Oak-egger moths with a virgin female?
Bignell carried a virgin female Oak-egger in a perforated tin box. At a turnstile he placed the box on a wall and, to a skeptical policeman, seemed to summon moths by whistling and waving. Within minutes males arrived, and in a quarter hour he had at least fifty, tame enough to pick up by hand. Next day males even entered his pocket where the empty box had been.
Chapter 22

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How did Bignell and his friend capture the Heliophobus hispidus moth on the cliff?
One man lay flat while Mr. Bignell sat, dug his boot heels into the turf, and held his friend by the legs, thrusting him over the cliff edge so he could box the moth while holding his lantern handle between his teeth. The moth was secured, having first been spotted by its ruby-like eyes shining on a grass blade overhanging a twenty-foot drop.
Chapter 23
What did Mr. Bignell discover about the hyper-parasite and the aphis?
Bignell possessed a unique collection of parasites living on the aphis, plus the hyper-parasite preying on that parasite. The life-history was unknown until Bignell detected a hyper-parasite pierce the aphis, itself a parasite. The specimen was secured and the hyper-parasite was bred from it. Bignell also unrolled the life-story of the aphis and recorded the ichneumon fly's acts.
Chapter 23
What does the author argue about how ichneumonidae provide for their young compared with humans?
The author argues the ichneumonidae are cleverer than humans: caterpillars serve as feeding grounds for their eggs and food for the young, so the mothers deposit eggs once and then gad about carefree, while humans and other mammals must nourish their own young, sometimes to exhaustion. The author adds it is a comfort that the preyed-upon insects do not seem to suffer much.
Chapter 23
What does the author conclude about the claimed ancient origins of the Call family?
The author argues the family-papers story is fabulous from beginning to end. Playfair's British Family Antiquity (1809) claimed three Call brothers came from Saxony in the eighth century, but the author notes Saxons and Northmen had only personal names, not families, and calls the Callington derivation absurd since the Calls settled near it only in 1770. The author says Sir John's great-grandfather was a tenant farmer.
Chapter 23

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Why was Fort S. George able to withstand Lally's siege in 1759?
The author credits the fortifications begun in 1756, when war with France was expected. Call directed the work, employing about four thousand labourers daily; the river channel was diverted and filled, and extensive bastions and outworks were erected. The author states it was due to this undertaking that the fort stood successfully against the Count de Lally's siege.
Chapter 24
What was Call's role in Clive's Arcot campaign of 1752?
Call accompanied Captain Clive against the French who held Arcot. Clive marched with two hundred English soldiers and three hundred sepoys and eight English officers, but only two had seen action; four, Call among them, were commercial clerks forced by Clive's example to draw the sword. Call was present through the fifty-day siege and the battle of Coverplank, which dispersed the French.
Chapter 24
Why did Lally raise the siege of Madras in February 1759?
Lally's heavy artillery was still at sea, and a sepoy corps captured and spiked his only 13-inch mortar. For six weeks his men went unpaid, and for the last fifteen days they had only rice and butter. His ammunition ran out; he had thrown his last bomb three weeks earlier. He decamped on the night of 17 February 1759, blaming everyone but himself.
Chapter 24
What became of Pondicherry and French power in the Carnatic by 1761?
In late 1760 and early 1761 Call served as chief engineer under Sir Eyre Coote in reducing Pondicherry, which surrendered at discretion after two days of furious battering. The town and fortifications were then levelled with the ground. A few weeks later the hill-fortress of Gingi surrendered, and the author says the military power of the French in the Carnatic was brought to an end.
Chapter 24

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Why did John Knill build the three-sided granite pyramid near St Ives?
Knill erected the mausoleum in 1782, thirty years before his death, partly from a philanthropic motive as a landmark for ships approaching the port, partly to provide employment for men during a time of considerable distress, and partly from a desire to be buried there if the ground could be consecrated. He later abandoned the burial intention and died in London in 1811.
Chapter 25
What did the Gentleman's Magazine get wrong about Knill's monument inscriptions?
The magazine claimed the pyramid bore 'Hic jacet nil' and 'Ex nihilo nil fit,' with letters to be added when Knill was interred. A relative's 1853 letter corrected this: one side reads 'Resurgam,' the second 'I know that my Redeemer liveth,' and the third has no inscription at all. The supposed puns existed only in the correspondent's imagination.
Chapter 25
What positions did John Knill hold before and after his West Indies service?
Knill was appointed collector of customs at St Ives in 1762 and held the post about twenty years, also serving as mayor in 1767. In 1773 the Government sent him to Jamaica to inspect ports; he stayed a year, received £1500 from the Board of Customs, and returned to St Ives in 1774. In 1777 he was private secretary to the Earl of Buckinghamshire in Dublin for six months.
Chapter 25
What did Sir John Call do for his sister and her husband Cadwalader Jones?
Call rebuilt or extended the manor house near the church, installed Cadwalader Jones and his sister there, and made them a large walled garden. He acted under the impression that the property belonged to Cadwalader, and only after finishing the building learned that Jones held merely a lease. Mrs. Jones died in 1780, and the house later passed to Mr. Hawkey through marriage.
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What did John Knill's 1797 deed require to happen every five years at his mausoleum?
Knill settled a £10 annuity on the mayor and burgesses of S. Ives, paid from the manor of Glivian. The sum was kept in a chest opened only every five years; the accumulated money funded a dinner for the mayor, customs collector, vicar and guests, and £15 divided among ten native girls under ten, who danced and sang round the mausoleum on S. James's Day to a fiddler paid a pound.
Chapter 26
How did John Tregoss obtain the Roscadden estate, and what happened afterward?
Roscadden, returned from pilgrimage to find his wife had borne children, was advised by Tregoss to settle his estate on a trusted friend for his family's benefit. Tregoss was made absolute heir but, after Roscadden died, turned the wife and children out. The chapter reports that misfortunes later struck Tregoss's family, including his son Walter breaking his neck in a fall from a horse.
Chapter 26
Why was Thomas Tregoss ejected from Mylor in 1660, and what did he do next?
He was ejected on August 24th, 1660, as not ordained and unwilling to receive ordination, subscribe to the articles, or conform to the liturgy. He continued preaching to privately assembled Puritan sympathizers, was committed to the marshal in Launceston gaol for three months, and was released by order of the Deputy Lieutenant.
Chapter 26
What did Anthony Payne's size let him do as a boy and at Stowe?
Payne grew to preternatural size; schoolmates worked arithmetic and drew maps in chalk on his back. He delighted in carrying two boys under his arms up a height over the sea, calling them his kittens. At twenty-one he entered the Stowe establishment, measuring seven feet two inches without shoes and later growing two inches more, stout and well proportioned.
Chapter 26

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What feats of strength are attributed to Anthony Payne at Stowe?
The chapter says Payne delighted in exhibiting his strength at Stowe. A rough block in the hurling-ground, still called "Payne's cast," lies ten paces beyond where ordinary players could put the stone. On one Christmas Eve, when the hall fire languished, he caught up an ass and its burden of faggots, carried both over his shoulder into the hall, and cast them by the fire. He also carried a bacon-hog from Kilkhampton to Stowe.
Chapter 27
What happened to Kneller's portrait of Payne after Stowe was dismantled?
The picture went to Penheale, where it was neglected and forgotten. Gilbert found it rolled up and dirty, described by a farmer's wife as "a carpet with the effigy of a large man on it," and bought it for £8. After Gilbert's death it sold for £42, then £800 in London once recognized as Kneller's work. It passed through Admiral Tucker's sale and a Devon buyer before Sir Robert Harvey gave it to the Royal Institution of Cornwall.
Chapter 27
How did Nevil Northey Burnard begin his career as a sculptor?
Burnard was born in 1818, son of a stonemason at Penpont, Altarnon, and was educated only by his mother, who kept a dame's school. He was his father's mortar-boy and carved figures on an old oak door with sharpened nails. At fourteen he cut his grandfather's tombstone; at sixteen he carved the Laocoon group in slate from a Penny Magazine woodcut, winning a silver medal from the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, which led to London and royal notice.
Chapter 27
What does the chapter say about Hawker's letter from Payne to Lady Grace Grenville?
The chapter says the Rev. R. S. Hawker gives a letter from the giant to Lady Grace Grenville conveying news of her husband's death, and praises its "noble strain of sympathy and homage." The chapter states it does not exist except in Hawker's book and is almost certainly a fabrication by him. It similarly notes Hawker wrongly dated the calf's-head quarrel to George I's reign, though Payne died in 1691.
Chapter 27

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What did Carlyle advise Burnard to do about the Buller bust?
In a February 1849 note, Carlyle told Burnard that if conditions never mend and he cannot get the bust done at all, it may prove better that he did not. He urged him to persist with wise strength, silent resolution, and manful, patient, unconquerable endeavour, believing the gods would let his talent develop.
Chapter 28
What were Burnard's two public statues and his later decline?
Burnard made the statue of Richard Lander for the column at Truro and the statue of Ebenezer Elliott for Sheffield's market-place. He also did portrait busts of figures like General Gough and Thackeray. He married in London, lost his wife, then took to drink; he eventually went 'on tramp' and died in the Union, Redruth, in 1878.
Chapter 28
What problem did Trevithick's locomotive face in sustaining speed?
Speed could only be maintained while accumulated steam was worked off. Sustaining it required keeping up enough steam, which required a strong, steady draught into the furnace. But as the locomotive moved, it created a draught the reverse of what was needed, so sufficient heat and continuous steam could not be generated.
Chapter 28

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Who invented the steam-blast, and what did it accomplish in a chimney?
Goldsworthy Gurney devised the steam-jet, which filled the funnel with high-pressure steam, acting like a pump's sucker to exhaust air and draw air up through the furnace. The steam had to completely fill the chimney, preventing any down draught. This was what had entirely escaped Trevithick and Stephenson, who had let waste steam disperse uselessly through the chimney.
Chapter 29
What effect did adopting the steam-blast have on Stephenson's Rocket?
Stephenson adopted Gurney's steam-blast for the Rocket, which ran on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in October 1829. Previously his engine had run continuously for fifty-three minutes doing twelve miles; with the steam-blast it reached twenty-nine miles an hour. The chapter argues locomotive success depended on the steam-blast, without which high speeds could not have been maintained.
Chapter 29
How did road trustees and Parliament obstruct Gurney's steam-carriages?
Coach-proprietors, coachmen, and road trustees opposed the carriages; once a pile of stones eighteen inches high was thrown across the road, breaking the coach's axle. Parliament raised highway tolls to prohibitive rates, halting steam conveyances. A Commons committee in 1831 found the tolls prohibitive and urged repeal, but the Commons ignored its own committee and the Lords threw out the Bill.
Chapter 29
What was the Bude light, and why did Trinity House reject it?
The Bude light, patented in 1838, was first an Argand oil lamp with a jet of oxygen introduced into the centre of the flame — though Dr. Ure had used this in Glasgow in 1806 or 1807. It proved too expensive for lighthouses, and its brilliancy was not sufficiently heightened for the Masters of Trinity House to adopt it. Gurney later substituted lime for clay and used concentric wicks.
Chapter 29

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What lighthouse identification system did Gurney propose?
Gurney proposed that lighthouses use powerful periodic flashes corresponding to a registered number for each lighthouse along the coast, so that the number of flashes per minute would identify the lighthouse to seamen.
Chapter 30
How did Gurney use his steam-jet beyond locomotives?
Gurney used the steam-jet to extinguish a burning coal-mine at Astley in Lancashire and another at Clackmannan in 1849 that had burned over thirty years. He also used it to expel noxious gases from sewers, including ventilating the Friar Street sewer in London in 1849.
Chapter 30
What did Gurney foresee about the galvanic battery's magnetic needle?
At Sir W. Snow Harris's experiment on Somerset House terrace, Gurney observed the magnetic needle making starts when meeting the poles of a galvanic battery. Turning to Sir Anthony Carlisle, he said with the inspiration of genius that here was an element that might, and he foresaw would, be made the means of intelligible communication.
Chapter 30
Who was Joseph Jane and how was he punished after the Royalist defeat?
Joseph Jane was an MP and mayor of Liskeard, a whole-hearted Royalist who entertained Charles I at Liskeard in 1644 and corresponded with Edward Hyde. When the Royal cause was lost, Parliament's vengeance nearly ruined him through the heavy composition he was forced to pay.
Chapter 30

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What did Jane do when offered the chance to support William and Mary?
Jane abandoned the doctrine of Divine Right, which he had previously held with ardour, and sought out William of Orange at Hungerford to assure him of the University of Oxford's adhesion. His enemies claimed he hinted at wanting a vacant bishopric in return, though the chapter notes there is no proof of this. He later opposed the Comprehension projects of Tillotson and Burnet.
Chapter 31
What did the Comprehension Bill's clauses propose for the Church?
The first clause dispensed ministers from subscribing the Thirty-nine Articles, and Presbyterian ordination was made eligible for benefices without episcopal ordination. The surplice became optional, the sign of the cross in baptism optional, and kneeling at the Eucharist unnecessary. A concluding clause asked the King and Queen to commission thirty divines to revise the liturgy, canons, and ecclesiastical courts.
Chapter 31
Why did Sprat, Jane, and Aldrich withdraw from the Jerusalem Chamber Commission?
When the commissioners assembled in October 1689, Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, rose and denied that the Commission was legal. A sharp altercation followed with violent words, and Sprat, Jane, and Aldrich withdrew. The chapter states that the strength of the Catholic party was thereby broken, and the remaining members agreed to sanction nearly all the changes.
Chapter 31
How did the Lower House of Convocation resist the Comprehension proposals?
After Jane was elected Prolocutor by fifty-five votes to twenty-eight, the Lower House avoided directly discussing the Commissioners' recommendations. They raised objection after objection to the bishops' address of thanks, demanded a separate address, and refused wording implying fellowship with other Protestant communities. A cold compromise address was presented, and they never proceeded to consider Comprehension.
Chapter 31

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Why did the Lower House reject the bishops' recess committee proposal in 1689?
The Lower House refused to consider any of the suggested concessions to Protestant prejudice, and rejected the bishops' plan for a committee to prepare business during the Christmas recess. It became plain to everyone that the Lower House was determined to block the proposed concessions. The King, disappointed and offended, prorogued Convocation for six weeks, then again, and many years passed before it assembled once more.
Chapter 32
How does Burnet explain Providence's role in the Convocation's refusal to alter the liturgy?
Burnet says there was a happy direction of Providence: the suspended Jacobite clergy wanted a pretext for schism, and if alterations had been made to the Rubrics and Common Prayer, they would have claimed to stick to the ancient Church of England against the innovators. Burnet believed that had the majority for alterations prevailed, it would have done more harm than good.
Chapter 32
What does the author argue about the DNB's judgment that Jane was a 'clerical politician of a low type'?
The author argues that Calamy, a Dissenter, was prejudiced against Jane, and disputes the DNB's verdict. The author contends Jane was not of a low type of polemical cleric, because when he saw his theory of government would not bear the test of experience, he had the courage to reject it. The author adds that every man may err, but only the brave acknowledge it.
Chapter 32
What evidence does the chapter give that the Penningtons cast bells across Devon and Cornwall?
Sir William Maclean is quoted saying that between 1702 and 1818 these popular founders cast nearly five hundred bells in Devon, and it is believed as many in Cornwall. The family was ancient in Bodmin, and Bernard Pennington, baptized 1605, was both Mayor of Bodmin in 1666 and a bell-founder. The Penningtons seem to have abandoned bell-casting at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
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What did John Pennington of Exeter contribute to Devon's bells?
John Pennington of Exeter cast sixty-six bells in Devon. The earliest dated is at Payhembury, 1635, and the latest is 1690 at Kentisbeare. In 1669 the initials T. P. and I. P. appear together on a bell at Merton, as if partners, and ninety-five bells bear the trade-mark of Thomas and John Pennington—large Roman initials with a bell in outline between.
Chapter 33
How did FitzAnthony Pennington die, and where is he buried?
FitzAnthony Pennington of Lezant drowned in 1768 while crossing the Tamar in the Antony ferry with a bell he had cast for Landulph. He was thirty-eight; he died April 30th, 1768, and is buried in the tower of Landulph, where a mural tablet bears verses beginning 'Tho' boisterous winds and billows sore.'
Chapter 33
What was Dr. Glynn-Clobery's view on gout being hereditary?
The author states Dr. Glynn-Clobery would not believe gout was hereditary. When a young man of nineteen with a first attack said it was in his blood by inheritance, the doctor replied, 'You talk nonsense. You may as well tell me you have a broken leg in your veins by inheritance,' and said the patient must first earn the costly privilege by drinking his double hogshead.
Chapter 33
Why did Captain Gardiner recruit three sailors from Mousehole?
In 1849 Captain Allen Gardiner planned to convert the natives of Terra del Fuego and Patagonia, though he knew nothing of their language, habits, or land. After the Moravians and the Scottish Establishment declined, a Cheltenham lady gave £700 and he added £300 of his own. He had four open boats built at Liverpool and drew three Cornish fishermen from Mousehole—John Pearce, John Badcock, and John Davy Bryant.
Chapter 33

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Why did Barrington travel to Mousehole to find Dolly Pentreath?
Barrington went into Cornwall in 1768 to determine whether Cornish had entirely ceased to be spoken. His Penzance guide told him Sennen would disappoint him but that Dolly Pentreath, an old woman at Mousehole, spoke Cornish fluently, having heard her grumble in an unknown tongue when his fish price displeased her.
Chapter 34
What did Gardiner's party lose, and what did Gardiner write about 'six mice'?
They lost both dinghies with six months' stores, found their gunpowder had been left in the Ocean Queen, and lost anchors and spare timber. In his diary Gardiner listed remaining provisions including 'six mice,' writing that friends might be startled, but they partook with relish, finding them tender and tasting like rabbit.
Chapter 34
What did Captain Morshead do when the Dido found the party's remains in 1852?
H.M.S. Dido arrived at Terra del Fuego on 21 January 1852 and found the scattered remains, papers, and graves. Captain Morshead had the remains collected and buried close by, with Lieutenant Underwood reading the funeral service. A short inscription was placed on a rock, colours struck half-mast, and three volleys of musketry fired.
Chapter 34

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According to Barrington, how did Dolly Pentreath use Cornish in daily life and trade?
Barrington reports she spoke Cornish as readily as others spoke English, having been raised knowing no other language and claiming she could not speak English before age twenty. As a fisherman's daughter she was sent at twelve to Penzance to sell fish in Cornish, which the inhabitants, even the gentry, then generally understood. She was poor, maintained partly by the parish and partly by fortune-telling and speaking Cornish.
Chapter 35
Why does the chapter argue Cornish declined, and how does Wales illustrate the point?
The chapter argues that from the time the liturgy was established in English in Cornish churches, the Cornish tongue rapidly declined. It states that had the Bible, or even the English Prayer-book, been rendered into Cornish, the language would have lived on, and attributes Welsh survival largely to the translation into Welsh. Carew in 1602 already noted English encroaching and driving Cornish to the shire's skirts.
Chapter 35
What evidence does the chapter give that Cornish survived beyond Dolly Pentreath?
Barrington's 1776 letter from William Bodener, a Mousehole fisherman, asserted four or five people there still spoke Cornish. In 1777 Barrington found John Nancarrow of Marazion, aged forty-five, able to converse in Cornish, who named another Truro native likewise able, supposed to be Mr. Tomson. Barrington noted Dolly's two neighbours, aged about seventy-seven or seventy-eight, were healthy, so the language did not depend on her alone.
Chapter 35

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What did Captain Mudge's report to the Admiralty claim about the cutting out of the Albion?
Mudge reported that the cutter was "masterly and gallantly attacked by Lieutenant Lake in the cutter" and Lieutenant Nicolls in the barge, who cut her out. The chapter states this was a gross misstatement: Lake commanded the barge and did nothing until Nicolls, in the red cutter, had already captured the Albion. Mudge also omitted Nicolls from the wounded list, though Nicolls was badly wounded.
Chapter 36
Why was Jeffery landed on Sombrero, and what did Lake know about the island?
Jeffery was caught stealing rum and spruce-beer, and Lake had him labeled a thief. On 13 December 1807 Lake ordered him put ashore at Sombrero, believing it inhabited by a few fishermen; rocks were mistaken for houses in the evening light. Neither Lake nor the crew knew the island was desert and waterless. Jeffery was left without shoes, extra clothes, or food.
Chapter 36
Why did the Sombrero affair become a public scandal in England?
Charles M. Thomas, a disgraced former purser, wrote to C. Bathurst calling Lake a "titled murderer" and accusing Cochrane of letting him escape; Thomas sought revenge on Cochrane for investigating his alleged frauds. Sir Francis Burdett and the Radicals made political capital of the case, forcing a strict inquiry. Jeffery returned to Portsmouth in October 1810 and was discharged at the Admiralty on 22 October.
Chapter 36

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Why was Captain Lake court-martialed at Portsmouth in February 1810?
A court-martial assembled on board the Gladiator at Portsmouth on 5 and 6 February 1810 to try Captain Lake for abandoning a seaman, Robert Jeffery, on a desert and uninhabited island. Lake argued the witnesses he might have summoned were away on ships worldwide, and produced a letter from all officers of the Ulysses, his former vessel, protesting he was humane and incapable of wanton cruelty.
Chapter 37
What sentence did the court-martial pronounce on Captain Lake?
The court found the charge proved against the Hon. Warwick Lake and adjudged him dismissed from His Majesty's service, acting under an Admiralty order of 3 February enclosing a letter from Charles Bathurst with one from Charles Morgan Thomas dated 24 March 1809. The chapter adds that Lake succeeded to the viscounty in 1836 and died in 1848, and that the author argues he was hardly treated while Jeffery was exalted into a hero.
Chapter 37
What happened to Robert Jeffery after he returned to Polperro?
Jeffery returned to Polperro, where his antecedents were well known and his tales of privation taken for what they were worth; elsewhere he received an enthusiastic ovation. He hired himself out to be 'run' by speculators at minor London theatres as 'Jeffery the Sailor,' then returned to Polperro with enough money to buy a small schooner for the coasting trade. The venture failed, he fell into consumption and died in 1820, leaving a wife and daughter in great penury.
Chapter 37
How was the Boyne destroyed at Spithead in May 1795?
The Boyne was burnt at Spithead on 1 May 1795. Marines had been exercising and firing on the windward side, and ignited paper from cartridges is supposed to have flown through the quarter-galley into the admiral's cabin and met papers on the table. Fire broke out at 11 a.m., bursting through the poop before discovery. All the crew except eleven were saved; heated guns fired among the shipping, killing two and wounding one on the Queen Charlotte, and the ship blew up about six o'clock.
Chapter 37

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How did Captain Fellowes and his officers decide to abandon the sinking ship?
Fellowes consulted Captain Thomas of the Navy and Mr. Bargus, his master, about further attempts to save the ship. Both declared nothing effectual could be done and that, with every moment precious, the boats should be got out and manned. The ladies were placed in the cutter; the jolly-boat carried the master, Colonel Cocks, the boatswain, sailmaker and seven seamen.
Chapter 38
What provisions and instruments were saved into the boats?
They saved between forty and fifty pounds of biscuit, a five-gallon vessel of water, a small jug of water, part of a small barrel of spruce beer, a demi-john of rum, a few bottles of port wine, two compasses, a quadrant, a spy-glass, a small tin mug and a wine-glass. The cook secured the tinder-box and matches in a bladder, letting them steer by night.
Chapter 38
What daily ration did Fellowes impose, and how did it change?
Each person received half a biscuit and a glass of wine per twenty-four hours, with all agreeing to leave the water untouched as long as possible. The allowance was later contracted because the biscuit was much damaged by salt water overnight. By arrival at Conception Bay after seven days, they were reduced to a quarter of a biscuit, a wine-glass of port wine and spirit, and then water.
Chapter 38
How did Pollard change Nelson's famous Trafalgar signal?
Nelson dictated the signal 'England confides that every man will do his duty.' Pollard, the signal midshipman ordered to send it, remarked that the word 'confides' was not in the code and suggested 'expects' instead, which Nelson at once accepted. Napoleon admired the order so much he had it printed with France substituted for England and given to each of his naval officers.
Chapter 38

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What was Bosavern Penlez's background and how did he come to be involved in the Strand riots?
Bosavern Penlez was the son of a Cornish clergyman, apprenticed to a wig-maker in London. He admitted being in Peter Wood's house during the riot, saying he was tipsy and had followed the mob but did no mischief and had no evil intent. He was arrested while retreating with some of Wood's goods and later condemned to death.
Chapter 39
What was Henry Fielding's role in the aftermath of the Penlez case?
Henry Fielding, the magistrate, published 'A True State of the Case of Bosavern Penlez' in 1749 as a response to a widely circulated pamphlet, 'The Case of the Unfortunate Bosavern Penlez'. Fielding's account detailed the riots, including attacks on Owen's and Stanhope's houses, the release of prisoners, and the military's difficulty in quelling the disturbances, thereby justifying the actions taken against Penlez.
Chapter 39
How did the sailors conduct the destruction of the houses in the Strand, according to the chapter?
The sailors methodically destroyed the houses, throwing goods into the street and burning them with 'decency and order.' They avoided pillage, even taking a gilt cage from a boy and throwing it into the fire. Neighbors watched with amusement, and the guards arrived too late to stop them. The mob later moved to Peter Wood's house, where arrests were made.
Chapter 39
What evidence led to John Wilson's death sentence, and what was his defense?
Peter Wood testified that Wilson knocked him down and asked, 'You dog, are you not dead yet?' while Mrs. Wood and a waiting-man also identified him. Wilson protested mistaken identity and brought witnesses to his good character, but was condemned. He was later reprieved and pardoned, while Penlez was hanged.
Chapter 39

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What did the watchman see Penlez doing before his arrest?
Samuel Marsh, watchman of St. Dunstan's, saw Bosavern Penlez thrusting lace objects into his bosom and pockets and let fall a lace cap. Penlez claimed he was carrying his wife's property in retaliation for her pawning his clothes, but it was false that he was married, and ten lace caps and other goods belonging to Peter Wood's wife were found on him.
Chapter 40
What did Fielding argue about the government's treatment of the rioters?
The author reports that Fielding argued Penlez deserved his fate and that more had been said and done in his favor than ought to have been. Fielding claimed the clamor against government severity was unjustifiable, and that it would be more difficult to justify the lenity used, noting only one of two convicted men was executed.
Chapter 40
How did the Haymarket Theatre riot compare to Penlez's case?
The author notes that in the same year the Duke of Cumberland drew his sword at the Haymarket Theatre and called on the crowd to follow him; seats were smashed, scenery torn down, and wreckage burned in the street. For this no one was hanged, which the author calls inconsistent: what was sauce for the goose was not sauce for the gander.
Chapter 40
How did Captain Goodere murder his brother Sir John?
Captain Samuel Goodere lured Sir John from a dinner at Mr. Jarrit Smith's house in Bristol, had sailors seize him, muffled his cries with a cloak, and took him aboard the Ruby. There he induced sailors Matthew Mahony and Charles White to strangle the baronet, passing the cord himself and standing at the door with drawn sword. Goodere and both sailors were hanged in 1741.
Chapter 40

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How did Foote's Oxford prank with a cow and bell-rope create a haunting scare?
Foote looped the low-hanging bell-rope in the church porch and inserted a wisp of hay. A grazing cow seized the hay and tugged the rope, ringing the bell at jerky intervals until the hay was consumed. Neighbors ran out fearing a fire, and when it recurred nightly they concluded the church was haunted, until Dr. Gower and the sexton watched and found it was a scholar's prank.
Chapter 41
How did Foote evade licensing rules when opening the Haymarket in 1747?
Foote lacked a licence, so he advertised his entertainment as a Concert of Music, after which his Diversions and a play would be given gratis. When Westminster magistrates sent constables to disperse the audience, he next advertised a chocolate-drinking gathering, then claimed he was merely instructing young performers and slipped his imitations in under that pretext. Uninterfered with, he moved to evenings and substituted tea for chocolate.
Chapter 41
What happened when Foote mimicked Dr. Johnson, and why did he desist?
A mutual friend told Johnson that Foote intended to impersonate him on stage. Johnson asked the price of a cane, was told sixpence, and gave a shilling, asking for the stoutest available. He said he would attend the first performance, go on stage, and thrash Foote soundly. When this was repeated to the mimic, he deemed it advisable to abandon that particular impersonation.
Chapter 41
How did Foote's mockery of Mr. Ap Rice as Cadwalader in The Author end?
Foote's 1757 comedy The Author caricatured his friend Mr. Ap Rice as Cadwalader, a wealthy man vainly eager to seem a patron of the arts despite profound ignorance. Ap Rice had unknowingly exposed himself to ridicule at his own table. Once the public greeted him as Cadwalader everywhere, he asked Foote to suppress the piece; Foote refused because it drew crowds, so Ap Rice obtained an injunction from the Lord Chamberlain.
Chapter 41

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How did Samuel Foote reply to his mother's letter asking him to help her in debtors' prison?
Foote answered his mother's note from the Fleet Prison by saying he was likewise in prison for debt, "which prevents his duty being paid to his loving mother by her affectionate son, Sam. Foote." The exchange shows his wit turned even on family misfortune, matching the chapter's account that he had squandered three fortunes and adopted the motto "Iterum, iterum, iterumque."
Chapter 42
How did Foote deflect Archbishop Secker's objections to licensing The Minor?
Foote offered to submit The Minor to Archbishop Secker for revision, with permission to strike out whatever he deemed objectionable. The prelate refused, knowing that if he had done so, Foote would have advertised the performance as "altered and amended by his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury." The chapter presents this as Secker avoiding a trap rather than Foote being censored.
Chapter 42
What charge was brought against Foote after he satirized Jackson as Doctor Viper, and what was the outcome?
After Foote transferred his satire from the Duchess of Kingston to her chaplain Jackson, portraying him as Doctor Viper in The Capuchin, Jackson retaliated by trumping up a vile charge with the help of a coachman Foote had discharged for misconduct. Foote's many enemies funded the prosecution, tried at King's Bench before Lord Mansfield and a special jury, but the case broke down completely and Foote was acquitted.
Chapter 42

Section 433 cards

Who was Lord Mohun's first wife, and how did the marriage end?
He married Charlotte, daughter of Thomas Mainwaring, but they lived unhappily and separated; he refused to acknowledge their daughter as his own. The author states she was eventually drowned on a passage to Ireland with one of her gallants, freeing him. He then married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Thomas Laurence and widow of Colonel Edward Griffith.
Chapter 43
What did Captain Hill and Lord Mohun plan regarding Mrs. Bracegirdle?
Hill, enraged by her rejection of his marriage offer, blamed Mountford and vowed to kill him. He and Mohun planned to abduct Mrs. Bracegirdle by force: a coach with two horses waited in Drury Lane, four more were held in reserve to carry her to Totteridge, and they armed themselves with pistols and bribed soldiers to help.
Chapter 43
What was the outcome of Lord Mohun's trial for Mountford's murder?
A Middlesex grand jury found a bill of murder against Hill and Mohun; Hill escaped, Mohun was taken. Tried in the Court of the Lord High Steward before the peerage, with Caermarthen presiding, Mohun was acquitted by sixty-nine votes to fourteen. Macaulay holds the judges' unanimous opinion and the King alike held the murder fully proven.
Chapter 43

Section 444 cards

What did Lord Mohun say when told Hill had escaped after the murder?
According to the Attorney-General, Mohun's first question on surrendering was whether Mr. Hill had escaped; told yes, he exclaimed he was glad of it and would not care if he were hanged for Hill, regretting only that Hill had escaped with very little money. He also confessed to the watch that he had changed coats with his friend to disguise them from pursuers.
Chapter 44
How did contemporaries explain the conflicting portraits of Lord Mohun's character?
The chapter states party feeling strongly coloured descriptions of Mohun. He was a Whig and zealous advocate of the Elector of Hanover's claims, making him obnoxious to Tories and Jacobites; the Examiner painted him in the worst light, even accusing him of cowardice. Bishop Burnet said only that he was sorry he could not say more good of him, and had too much kindness to say evil unnecessarily.
Chapter 44
How did the planned duel between the Duke of Marlborough and Earl Pawlet end?
Lord Mohun told Earl Pawlet the Duke of Marlborough desired an explanation and to take air in the country, and said he would second the Duke. Pawlet asked plainly whether Mohun brought a challenge. The Countess alerted the Earl of Dartmouth, who confined the Duke and guarded Pawlet's house; the Queen required the Duke's word of honour to proceed no further, which he gave.
Chapter 44
What were the circumstances of Lord Mohun's final duel with the Duke of Hamilton?
Mohun and Hamilton were engaged in law-suits over the Macclesfield estates, plus political animosity. Mohun publicly insulted the Duke hoping to be challenged; instead Mohun, the offender, sent a challenge via General Maccartney. On November 15th at seven o'clock they met at Hyde Park lodge with seconds and jumped a ditch into the Nursery. Both Mohun and Hamilton died; Mohun's title expired.
Chapter 44

Section 454 cards

Who was suspected of fatally stabbing the Duke of Hamilton at the duel, and why was it doubted?
Colonel Hamilton alleged that Maccartney, Lord Mohun's second, stabbed the Duke over his shoulder while Hamilton helped him up. But the author notes the wound was thought impracticable for Mohun to give, and at Maccartney's trial Hamilton prevaricated while distant witnesses contradicted key points of his testimony. The author concludes it is very doubtful whether the coup de grâce came from Mohun or his second.
Chapter 45
What happened to Maccartney after the duel?
Maccartney fled immediately and stayed safe in Holland, prompting the Government to offer £800 for his apprehension. Some years later he returned to England and was tried, but the jury returned a verdict of 'Manslaughter.' The author notes the large reward was offered while he remained secure in the Low Countries.
Chapter 45
How do Swift's two accounts of the Duke's death differ?
In a letter to Mrs. Dingley written the day of the duel, Swift says Mohun, while the Duke was over him, shortened his sword and stabbed him in at the shoulder to the heart. In his History of the Four Last Years of the Queen (1713), Swift instead says Maccartney most barbarously stabbed the Duke in the breast. The author presents both versions without resolving them.
Chapter 45
What became of Lord Mohun's titles and estates after his death?
With Lord Mohun, the barony of Mohun of Okehampton became extinct. The estate of Gawsworth in Cheshire, inherited from Lord Macclesfield, was vested by his will in his widow and eventually passed to her second daughter by her first husband, Anne Griffith, wife of William Stanhope, and thence to the Earls of Harrington. Boconnoc and the Devon and Cornish estates were sold in 1717 for £54,000 to Thomas Pitt.
Chapter 45

Section 464 cards

Why did Captain Vancouver place Lord Camelford under arrest?
Lord Camelford accompanied Vancouver on the Discovery during part of his circumnavigation, but proved so troublesome, headstrong, and disobedient to orders that Vancouver was compelled to place him under arrest. Camelford then quit the Discovery in the Indian Seas and joined the Resistance under Sir Edward Pakenham, who appointed him lieutenant.
Chapter 46
How did the court-martial rule after Lord Camelford shot Lieutenant Peterson?
At Antigua, Peterson refused Camelford's order as exceeding his authority and armed twelve of the Perdrix's crew. Camelford borrowed a pistol and shot him through the head. A court-martial at Martinique, sitting 20–25 January, found Peterson's disobedience and armed resistance acts of mutiny, and unanimously and honourably acquitted Lord Camelford.
Chapter 46
What did Lord Camelford's will declare about the duel with Mr. Best?
Camelford wrote that he was fully and entirely the aggressor in the contest, in spirit and letter. Should he lose his life in a contest of his own seeking, he solemnly forbade friends or relations from bringing vexatious proceedings against his antagonist, and asked that this part of his will be made known to the King so his royal heart might extend mercy.
Chapter 46
What happened when Lord Camelford refused to light his windows in 1801?
When peace was celebrated by a general illumination in 1801, no persuasion of his landlord, a grocer in New Bond Street, could induce Camelford to place lights in his windows. The mob assailed the house and smashed every pane. Camelford sallied out with a cudgel, was severely mauled, rolled in the kennel, and beaten, his clothes torn off. He then hired sailors to defend the house.
Chapter 46

Section 474 cards

What did Lord Camelford say to Mr. Best after being shot?
According to the chapter, Lord Camelford grasped his antagonist's hand and said, "Best, I am a dead man; you have killed me, but I freely forgive you." He also told a gardener not to arrest the fleeing men, saying he was himself the aggressor and forgave the gentleman as he hoped God would forgive him.
Chapter 47
What verdict did the inquest return for Lord Camelford's death, and what happened to the indictment?
The inquest returned a verdict of wilful murder against "some person or persons unknown." A bill of indictment was then preferred against Mr. Best and his second, but the grand jury ignored it. Camelford died without issue, so Boconnoc passed to his sister, Lady Grenville.
Chapter 47
How did William Noye's political stance change after 1631?
The author argues Noye began as a bold champion of subjects' liberty in Parliament, opposing royal prerogative. King Charles, advised to divert Noye's skill with court preferment, made him Attorney-General in 1631. He then became a zealous promoter of arbitrary monarchy, and is blamed as principal contriver of the ship-money tax.
Chapter 47
How was ship-money levied, and what did it accomplish?
The first writ, issued October 1634, ordered London to provide ships with men, arms, and stores, paying wages for twenty-six weeks. In 1635 writs went to inland counties, which paid £3300 per ship instead. Despite resistance, a fleet was raised, Dutch fishing vessels were driven off, and English slaves were rescued from Moorish pirates.
Chapter 47

Section 483 cards

How did Noye's soap monopoly evade the statute against monopolies?
Noye advised Charles to grant a chartered company exclusive rights to make and sell soap, for £10,000 paid for the patent plus £8 duty per ton. The patent let existing soap-boilers join the company, so Noye claimed the letter of the law was evaded, since the Act had targeted individuals and a few court-favoured monopolists. Resisters were handed to the Star Chamber.
Chapter 48
What was Prynne's 1634 offence before the Star Chamber?
His book Histrio-Mastix attacked plays, masques, and dances, and also hunting, festivals, Christmas-keeping, bonfires, May-poles, and decking houses with ivy. Noye's information charged that he railed against amusements the Queen and Council attended, cast aspersions on the Queen, and stirred discontent against the King. He was fined £10,000, branded, and mutilated.
Chapter 48
What did Howell report about Noye's death and will?
Howell wrote that Noye died in 1635 at Tunbridge Wells, his heart shrivelled like a leather purse and his lungs missing. His short Latin will left his firstborn the residue 'to be consumed or scattered,' which Howell called uncharitable, and Howell wondered that Noye left nothing to Viscount Savage's children despite deep obligations.
Chapter 48

Section 494 cards

How did William Lemon change the scale of Cornish mining?
The author states Lemon was the first to conceive of working mines on a grand scale rather than by small bands of adventurers. He partnered with George Blewett and Mr. Dewin on Wheal Fortune in Ludgvan, where the second steam-engine was used, and reportedly realized £10,000 from it. He then moved to Truro and worked the great Gwennap mines on an unprecedented scale.
Chapter 49
How did Lemon respond when John Thomas confessed to shooting his tame chough?
Thomas, then a boy at Conon's school, shot the chough while out shooting against school rules. He went to Lemon's house in tears and confessed. Lemon paused, said he was sorry for the bird, but freely forgave the boy for his candour, promised to keep it secret, and offered to intercede with Conon if it reached him.
Chapter 49
What did Samuel Drew see on the moonlight night while watching for poachers?
Drew says he was stationed outside a hedge as lookout, possibly while poaching. He heard what sounded like a horse, but the creature was about the height of a large dog, with a dark shaggy coat and huge fiery eyes. It passed close by him and went through a closed gate without pausing. Drew insists the facts were real and he could never explain them naturally.
Chapter 49
What was Samuel Drew's early life and education like?
Drew was born 3 March 1765 in a cottage near S. Austell, son of a common labourer. His mother died when he was nine. He worked as a buddle-boy at a stamping-mill for three-halfpence a day, later twopence. At ten and a half he was apprenticed for nine years to a shoemaker named Baker for a premium of five pounds five shillings, and he largely lost his writing during that time.
Chapter 49

Section 504 cards

Why did Samuel Drew run away from his master, and where did he intend to go?
He was roughly and cruelly treated by his master, who beat him with the last and at one time maimed him. Feeling he could endure the bondage no more, he ran away with sixteen-pence ha'penny in his pocket, intending to go to Plymouth and seek a berth on board a man-of-war. He avoided the direct road for fear of meeting his father and took the route by Liskeard.
Chapter 50
What was a 'Sherborne man,' and what was Mr. Drew's stage?
With scarcely a bookseller in Cornwall, the only newspaper known among common people was the Sherborne Mercury, published weekly by Goadby and Co., who also issued the Weekly Entertainer. Private messengers called Sherborne men delivered papers, Entertainers, and ordered books, collected money, and took fresh orders. Mr. Drew's stage ran from S. Austell to Plymouth, leaving Monday morning and returning Wednesday.
Chapter 50
How did Samuel Drew survive the smuggling boat disaster at Port Wrinkle?
In December 1784 a boat was upset when a man leaned over the gunwale to catch his blown-off hat; three men drowned. Samuel and two others clung to the keel, then swam in pitch darkness. Samuel held a tangled mass of floating seaweed, then reached rocks with two other survivors, the only survivors of seven. They shouted for help, but the boatmen kept landing kegs until the cargo was discharged before rescuing them.
Chapter 50
What did Samuel Drew conclude about his stepmother's dog killing the cock?
The author argues the dog likely did not understand the precise import of the stepmother's wish, despite acting on it immediately. The cock was a more recent favourite and had received attentions previously given to the dog, which he thinks bred hostility the dog indulged only once her tone showed the cock was no longer protected. He also suggests the two dogs communicated in a faculty little understood, and saw in them a near approach to moral perception.
Chapter 50

Section 514 cards

How did Samuel Drew first encounter Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding?
A neighbouring gentleman brought Locke's Essay to his master's saddler shop to be bound. Drew had never seen or heard of the book, looked into it, found the reasoning 'very pretty' and the arguments 'exceedingly strong,' and read it whenever he could. He says this accidental circumstance gave him his first bias for abstruse subjects, though he did not see the essay again for many years.
Chapter 51
What did Drew do after reading Paine's Age of Reason?
While working on his Essay on the Immortality of the Soul around 1798, Drew was given T. Paine's Age of Reason. He read it, saw the fallacy of many of its arguments, wrote his remarks on the book, and published them as a pamphlet at S. Austell in 1799. Through this tract he became acquainted with Rev. John Whitaker, who encouraged him to revise and complete the immortality essay, published November 1802.
Chapter 51
Why did Drew abandon astronomy for metaphysics?
At one time Drew's mind turned toward astronomy, but he considered it impossible to make progress in studying the stars without the means to buy a powerful telescope. He therefore abandoned the thought and devoted himself to metaphysics, which the chapter calls perhaps one of the most unprofitable of all studies. The author argues his works were read when published but are no longer even looked into.
Chapter 51
How did the shoemaker's night-work anecdote change Drew's politics?
Drew told a friend that after entering business he resumed newspaper argument, and loungers filled his shop to discuss public measures, forcing him to work till midnight. One night a passing urchin called through the keyhole, 'Shoemaker! Shoemaker! Work by night and run about by day!' Stunned as if a pistol had fired, Drew turned over a new leaf, quit politics, and said he often experienced the bliss of ignorance on political topics afterward.
Chapter 51

Section 524 cards

What did Henry Rogers do when the under-sheriff came to serve the ejectment summons at Skewis?
Henry Rogers stood at an upper window armed with a gun and dared the under-sheriff, Stephen Tillie, to approach. When Tillie insisted he had the King's writ and must have possession, Rogers fired, burning Tillie's wig and singeing his face. A crowd of two or three hundred sympathizers had gathered, all supporting Henry against the widow Anne Rogers.
Chapter 52
What happened to Henry Rogers and his servant John Street after the siege?
They were tried at the assizes at Launceston on August 1st, 1735, both found guilty of murder, and both hanged. Rogers had fled on foot toward Salisbury to petition the King but was captured near there while sleeping at an inn. The author says sympathy cannot be withheld from both men, especially Street, who believed it his duty to defend his master and his property.
Chapter 52
How did John Sands and his companions survive the storm at sea in January 1702-3?
Their undecked fishing boat was driven out of sight of land for three days and nights; all aboard bailed water without sleep. They subsisted on a shilling's worth of bread and three or four gallons of brandy brought by the taverner's wife of the "Three Tuns." The author notes they were happily not starving, since Mr. Sands had taken her over to Falmouth.
Chapter 52
Why did Henry Rogers seize Skewis by force instead of contesting his brother's will in court?
The elder brother's widow, formerly Millett, produced a will leaving all his freehold property to her. Henry believed Skewis had belonged to the Rogers family for generations and that the will had been wrung from his dying brother by his wife's importunity when he was feeble in mind and body. The neighbourhood agreed great wrong had been done to Henry.
Chapter 52

Section 534 cards

How did Mr. Sands and his Cornish party end up landing in Normandy?
They were driven out to sea in a boat from Falmouth and, after a gale lasting three nights and four days, were carried across to the coast of Normandy. They landed on French soil while England was at war with Louis XIV, and were at once confronted by armed men who demanded who they were.
Chapter 53
How was the Cornish party treated after landing in France?
A French gentleman recognized Mr. Sands from a past shipwreck near the Lizard, where Sands had hospitably entertained him. The party surrendered their arms and forty guineas, but a magistrate ordered they not be held as prisoners of war; they went at liberty and were generously supplied by Normandy peasants and gentlemen. The King later ordered them sent back to England by transport ship.
Chapter 53
Why did Incledon's mother refuse to let him join the Thunderer?
Commodore Walsingham, delighted by the boy's singing aboard ship, wrote to Incledon's parents asking that the lad be placed under him in the vessel. His mother declined. The chapter notes it was well she did, for the Thunderer later went down in a storm in the West Indies and all hands aboard were lost.
Chapter 53
What was the outcome of Incledon's agreement with Harris of Covent Garden?
Incledon honored a verbal agreement with Harris, rejecting Linley's offer of twelve pounds a week for five years. He was badly treated at Covent Garden and dismissed in 1809. Re-engaged two years later at seventeen pounds a week with a stipulation for suitable roles, the engagement was not fulfilled, leading to a final rupture after three years.
Chapter 53

Section 544 cards

What did Mrs. Siddons say to Incledon after he sang 'The Storm'?
After Incledon sang 'The Storm' after dinner, Mrs. Siddons cried and sobbed like a child. Taking both his hands, she told him that all that she and her brother had ever done was nothing compared to the effect he produced. Incledon himself used to tell this story as one of the finest compliments he ever received.
Chapter 54
How did Incledon survive the shipwreck on the passage from Liverpool to Dublin?
Incledon had been shipwrecked on the bar during a passage from Liverpool to Dublin, and some on board were lost. He saved himself and his wife by drawing her up to the round-top and lashing both of them to it. After several hours in that perilous position, fishermen who saw the wreck from shore rescued them.
Chapter 54
What trick did Incledon and Johnstone play on the theatre ladies, and how did it end?
Incledon and Johnstone told the ladies in the green-room a false tale of a provincial actor's widow needing money for flannel, collected shillings, and sent the dresser to 'The Brown Bear' for a quart of egg-hot, sharing a glass with each subscriber. After several repetitions, Quick bribed the dresser to add ipecacuanha, ending the joke. The mixture was thereafter popularly called Flannel.
Chapter 54
How was Incledon hoaxed about the patent lozenge for hoarseness?
A wag told Incledon that a patent lozenge sold only at a Bond Street jeweller's was an infallible cure for hoarseness, and that Kemble used it. Kemble gravely confirmed it, saying he kept it in his mouth all night. The jeweller gave Incledon a small pebble in a pill-box, which he kept in his mouth and spat around, noting it did not dissolve.
Chapter 54

Section 554 cards

How did Richard Coryton's killers falsely implicate Peter Coryton?
Bartlett and Baseley, found guilty of murdering Richard Coryton, accused Peter Coryton of instigating the crime. They later confessed to ministers at Newgate that they lied to save or prolong their lives, after the Sheriff of Cornwall suggested accusing others might help them. Bartlett died days later, repentant; Baseley also admitted Peter's innocence.
Chapter 55
What did the London deposition before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen establish?
The deposition, preserved at Pentillie Castle, records sworn testimony from clergymen John Philpott and Edward Wilkinson. Both testified that Bartlett and Baseley freely confessed Peter Coryton was innocent and that they alone committed the murder, having falsely accused him to save their lives. Baseley also said the Sheriff of Cornwall urged him to accuse someone else.
Chapter 55
What did Incledon do with the fictitious names in Debrett's Peerage?
Brandon, as a joke, entered fictitious titles such as 'Marquis of Piccadilly,' 'Duke of Windsor,' 'Lord Highgate,' and 'Bishop of Gravesend' in Incledon's absence. Incledon, unfamiliar with Debrett's, read them aloud and took them seriously, delighting that distinguished titles would attend and remarking that one must be of the Royal Family.
Chapter 55
How does Parke describe Incledon's singing and drinking habits?
Parke calls Incledon unrivalled as a ballad singer, especially in sea songs like Gay's 'Black-eyed Susan,' Stevens's 'The Storm,' and Shield's 'Heaving of the Lead.' Though Incledon showed a strong propensity to wine, Parke says he never appeared intoxicated; once, abstaining after illness, he secretly drank Madeira from a black bottle while others had port.
Chapter 55

Section 564 cards

What did Richard Baseley confess to William Margytte about Peter Curryngton?
Baseley, gravely ill in Newgate, told Margytte he and a neighbour had murdered Master Curryngton, and that he had falsely accused Peter Curryngton, the victim's son, of being privy to the murder. He said Peter was utterly ignorant of it, and that only he and Bartlett were involved. He explained he accused Peter hoping to save his own life.
Chapter 56
Why did Baseley falsely accuse Peter Curryngton?
Baseley said the Sheriff of Cornwall, Mr. Trevannyon, examined him and suggested such simple men could not have acted without help. The Sheriff promised to strike off his chain, take him home, and save his life if he confessed who procured the murder. Baseley, hoping to live, falsely accused Peter Curryngton.
Chapter 56
What did Bartlett swear about Peter Curryngton's involvement?
Margytte went into Newgate to question Rafe (Roll) Bartlett, who declared, as he should answer before God, that Peter Curryngton was never privy nor consenting to his father's murder. Only Bartlett and Baseley knew of it. They killed Curryngton because he had misused them many ways and they thought no one would mourn his death.
Chapter 56
What became of Baseley, Bartlett, and Peter Coryton after the trial?
Baseley died in Newgate. Bartlett was sent back to Launceston and hanged there. Peter Coryton, with the obstacle to his marriage removed, married the lady of his choice and had three sons and six daughters by her. He died on 13 August 1603.
Chapter 56

Section 574 cards

What did Hals claim about Sir James Tillie's origins and rise?
Hals's manuscript history says Tillie was the son of a labourer in S. Keverne and began as a servant or horseman to Sir John Coryton, then learned law under an attorney and became steward. Through care and industry he grew rich, married Sir Henry Vane's daughter, and after his master's death in 1680 became guardian and steward, increasing his wealth.
Chapter 57
What happened when the Heralds investigated Tillie's assumed coat-armour?
Hals reports that after James II knighted Tillie, the king learned he was no gentleman of blood and had used the arms of Count Tilly of Germany. The Heralds found the report true and, by royal order, took down the arms in his London chamber, tore them, and dragged them through the streets tied to horse tails. Luttrell records a £200 fine, not Hals's £500.
Chapter 57
What did Sir James Tillie's will actually direct about his burial?
The will, headed with a Latin submission to God's will, asks for private interment in a place in Pentillie Castle disclosed to his wife Lady Elizabeth Tillie, with a monument and inscription as he had desired her to arrange. The author notes the will is not impious as Hals claimed, and that the instructions paper survives and is less extravagant than represented.
Chapter 57
How does the author correct Gough's account of Tillie's burial?
Gough said Tillie was enclosed among the rocks of Whitsand Bay in a summer-house, with a wax figure in the room below. The author argues Pentillie is many miles from Whitsand Bay, the body was placed on a hill called Ararat, the figure is sandstone not wax, and it stands in a lofty brick tower built after his death, whose bill still exists.
Chapter 57

Section 584 cards

What did the Heralds' inability to trace a connection to the Tilly family indicate about Sir James Tillie?
The author argues it shows Sir James Tillie could claim no descent from the Cannington Tilly family, since he did not assume their arms. Had the Heralds traced any connection, they would have given his nephew a coat resembling, but not identical to, the Tilly arms. The author also notes that sharing a surname with a gentle family does not prove blood relation, as servants commonly took their masters' names.
Chapter 58
How did John Hawkey come to be a prisoner at Verdun, and for how long?
John Hawkey entered the navy as a midshipman in the Minerva. A few months after war renewed in 1803, he was taken prisoner while gallantly defending the ship after a pilot ran her onto the west point of Cherbourg's stone dyke in dense fog. He remained captive at Verdun for eleven years, until 1814. A lieutenant's commission sent to the West Indies by mistake was forwarded to him in France.
Chapter 58
What was Lieutenant Hawkey's role on the 1816 Congo expedition, and what did he contribute at the Fetiche Rock?
Hawkey acted as second in command under Captain Tuckey on the expedition to explore the Zaire or Congo, sailing March 19, 1816. He was an excellent draughtsman who sketched boldly and painted sea and land animals accurately. At the Fetiche Rock, a micaceous granite mass with sculptured figures on its surface, Hawkey drew the figures and managed to interpret them.
Chapter 58
What did Tuckey tell the chenoo at Lombee about the purpose of the expedition, and how was it received?
Tuckey explained that the King of England, equally good and powerful, had conquered his enemies and made peace in Europe, and now sent ships worldwide to do good and trade. He said he was going up the river and English trading vessels would later bring goods and teach house-building and clothes-making. The author notes these intentions were far beyond the people's comprehension; for two hours they asked whether he came to trade or make war.
Chapter 58

Section 592 cards

What did Captain Tuckey conclude about the cause of kidnapping and wars in the region?
Tuckey states that every man he conversed with acknowledged that if white men did not come for slaves, kidnapping would cease, and the wars that nine times out of ten result from the European slave trade would be less frequent. He adds that the people at large desire the trade's cessation, while great men and slave merchants profit from it and want it continued.
Chapter 59
What condition did Hawkey find the Congo in on returning aboard, and what did he do next?
Hawkey found the vessel in a horrid state of confusion and filth, stuffed with parrots, monkeys, puppies and pigeons, with the carpenter cutting up the last plank to make coffins, the deck still lumbered, no wind-sail up, no stock aboard, and his cabin filthy as a hog-stye. He passed a sleepless night. On September 18th he left the Congo with Tuckey and Smith and reached the Dorothy.
Chapter 59

Section 603 cards

What did Captain Tuckey's journal say about the climate during the expedition?
Tuckey's journal records that nothing could have been finer than the climate: the atmosphere was remarkably dry, scarcely a shower fell during the whole journey, and for three or four days the sun did not shine enough for an observation to be taken. The author notes this makes the great mortality the more extraordinary.
Chapter 60
According to the assistant surgeon, what caused most of the deaths on the Congo expedition?
The assistant surgeon reported that the greater number were carried off by a violent intermittent fever. Some appeared to have no ailment other than extreme exhaustion from the land journey. Some crew of the Congo who never went above the cataracts also died of fever, having been allowed ashore to roam by day and sleep in huts or open air at night.
Chapter 60
What did Mr. Williams of Scorrier dream on the night Perceval was shot?
Williams dreamed three times that he was in the lobby of the House of Commons and saw a small man in a blue coat and white waistcoat shot by a man in a brown coat with yellow basket buttons. He saw the blood and the change of countenance, and was told the victim was the Chancellor. His wife dismissed it as a dream; he rose between one and two o'clock.
Chapter 60

Section 614 cards

What did Mr. Williams dream about before the assassination of Mr. Perceval?
Mr. Williams dreamed three times of a man firing a pistol in the lobby of the House of Commons and of the victim being struck and falling. He had never seen Perceval, never written to him, and had never visited the lobby. He later identified the exact spot and matched the dress of both Perceval and Bellingham to his dream.
Chapter 61
How did Tresilian advise the King to respond to the peasants' demands after the revolt?
The King had granted charters promising the abolition of serfage, freedom to buy and sell, land at fourpence an acre, and a general amnesty. Once the disturbances ended he repudiated them, and Baring-Gould says we cannot doubt he did so on Tresilian's advice, since Tresilian pronounced the charters illegal. Richard later urged abolition of villainage in Parliament, but it was rejected.
Chapter 61
What did Tresilian and the judges certify at the Nottingham council of 1387?
Acting on Tresilian's advice, Richard assembled a council at Nottingham and asked the judges whether the Commission of Government appointed by Parliament was legal. Tresilian led the judges to certify that the commission was illegal, that those who introduced it were liable to capital punishment, and that all who supported it were guilty of high treason — making Lords and Commons traitors.
Chapter 61
How was Chief Justice Tresilian captured, according to Froissart?
Richard and De Vere sent him to London to observe the King's uncles. Tresilian left Bristol disguised as a poor tradesman on a wretched hackney and lodged at an inn where he was unknown, since no one could imagine a King's counsellor and chamberlain in so miserable a dress. He had been appealed of treason by Gloucester along with the other favourites.
Chapter 61

Section 624 cards

How was Sir Robert Tresilian discovered and captured at the ale-house?
A squire of the Duke of Gloucester recognized Tresilian at a window overlooking the palace yard, entered the ale-house, and confirmed his identity despite Tresilian's claim to be a tenant of Sir John Holland. The squire reported to the council, and Gloucester sent him back with four bailiffs, who arrested Tresilian and carried him to the palace.
Chapter 62
What accusation and threat did the Duke of Gloucester make to Tresilian?
Gloucester said Tresilian had acted neither fairly nor honestly, had come where he was not loved, had ill-advised the King and stirred him against the nobility, and had excited the principal towns against them. He declared the day of retribution had come and swore he would neither eat nor drink till Tresilian was no more.
Chapter 62
How did Tresilian answer Gloucester's questions about the King and Duke of Ireland?
Tresilian said the King had sent him to learn the news, was at Bristol on the banks of the Severn hunting and amusing himself, and that the Duke of Ireland was with the King. Asked where the gathered men were headed, he said they were indeed for Ireland, swearing 'as God may help me.'
Chapter 62
How does Trelawny describe his father's attitude toward money and relatives?
The author quotes Edward John Trelawny describing his father as economically strict, treating money, lands, and houses as his only dreams. He calculated the sterling value and life expectancy of relations using insurance tables, kept friendly with wealthy connexions and aloof from poor ones, and had an antipathy to lending that discouraged even the most adventurous from asking.
Chapter 62

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What did Keates report to Duckworth about Trafalgar, and how did Duckworth react?
Keates told Duckworth that a great battle had been fought two days earlier off Trafalgar, that the combined French and Spanish fleets were annihilated, and that Nelson was dead. He murmured that had they not been detained they would have been there. Duckworth said nothing, conscience-struck, paced the deck avoiding his captain's look, then set all sail and walked the quarter-deck alone amid a death-like stillness.
Chapter 63
What does the chapter say about the reliability of Trelawny's Adventures of a Younger Son?
The chapter says the account can be trusted up to Trelawny's desertion at Bombay, but from that point he romances with an air of reality, and fact cannot be separated from fiction. The author argues Trelawny began with intent to write autobiography but was inordinately vain, delighted in posturing as a hero, and heightened his adventures sensationally with great skill.
Chapter 63
How did Trelawny come to be wounded in May 1825, and what happened to Odysseus?
Mavrocordato, suspicious of Trelawny as Odysseus's brother-in-law, foisted on him the English spy Fenton with secret instructions to kill him. In May 1825 Fenton shot Trelawny in the back, and the wounds took three months to recover from. Odysseus, after a three-month truce with Omer Pasha, was forced to surrender to the Government, carried to Athens, and strangled by order of Mavrocordato.
Chapter 63
What did Signora Trelawny petition the Lord High Commissioner about, and what did she promise?
She petitioned about the treatment she endured from Trelawny, including his sending her the dead body of their daughter in a box while she was in the convent. She asked whether, as the wife of an Englishman, she should be subject to the island custom requiring a separated wife to live in a convent, and wished to go to Paxo to her sister. She promised always to conduct herself as proper for the wife of an English gentleman.
Chapter 63

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What evidence does the chapter cite to support the story of Trelawny sending his dead child to its mother in a box?
The chapter says a petition and a letter from Mr. Robinson suffice to show the story is not a fable, contrary to the Dictionary of National Biography notice on Edward John Trelawny. It also notes that the girl, aged seventeen, obtained a separation a mensa et thoro and was awarded twenty-five dollars a month by courts in Zante and Corfu.
Chapter 64
How does the chapter characterize Trelawny's reliability in his autobiography and his treatment of Byron after death?
The chapter states no reliance can be placed on the autobiography except for his boyhood, quoting Byron that Trelawny 'could not speak the truth even if he wished.' It says when Byron died Trelawny wrote to Mary Shelley that it was well for Byron's name and better for Greece that he was dead, calling Byron weak and ignoble.
Chapter 64
How did young James Silk Buckingham stop the Cornish miners' mob at Flushing?
Captain Kempthorne placed the six- or seven-year-old boy on a sack of corn and told him to sing a hymn. With his shrill voice he began 'Salvation, O! the joyful sound.' The mob took up the chant, dropped their clubs, and dispersed harmlessly after the hymn ended.
Chapter 64
What happened to Buckingham on his third voyage to Lisbon as a boy?
He was captured by a French corvette and imprisoned at Corunna when about ten years old. The gaoler's daughter of the same age brought him dainties and tried to get him to elope, but he declined. He was then sent to Lisbon, forced to walk several hundred miles barefoot, begging food and lodging.
Chapter 64

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Why did Mahomet Ali refuse Buckingham's Suez canal plan?
Buckingham surveyed the Isthmus of Suez and judged a canal connecting the Red Sea and Mediterranean feasible and highly advantageous to English trade with India. Mahomet Ali rejected it, asking whose ships would use the canal; when told English vessels, he reasoned the English would then want Egypt to secure the passage, saying he would not sharpen the knife to cut his own throat.
Chapter 65
What did Buckingham do when ordered on a slaving voyage?
In 1818 the Imaum of Muscat commanded Buckingham to take the Humayoon Shah to the coast of Zanzibar on a slaving expedition. Rather than be implicated in what the chapter calls such a nefarious trade, he threw up the engagement, which was worth £4,000 per annum.
Chapter 65
How did Buckingham's Calcutta Mirror end, and what did he receive later?
Buckingham founded and edited the Calcutta Mirror, a Liberal paper netting £8,000 a year, but its advocacy of Free Trade, free settlement, and a free Press, plus exposure of the Company's misdoings, led Governor-General John Adams to suppress it and order him out of Calcutta. He lost his fortune and library; only in 1851 did he receive annuities of £200 each from the Company and the British Government.
Chapter 65

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How did John Carter get the nickname 'King of Prussia'?
As a boy playing at soldiers, John Carter learned of Frederick the Great's renown and dubbed himself the King of Prussia. The title stuck for life and gave its name to Prussia Cove, which had formerly been called Porthleah.
Chapter 66
How did John Carter turn a customs raid to his advantage?
Revenue officers broke open his locked shed but found only household goods. Unable to refasten it, they left it open overnight, and by morning everything had vanished. Carter then sued the officers for the goods taken and they had to refund the losses, though he had himself removed them.
Chapter 66
What was Mary Ann Davenport's most celebrated later role?
As an old lady, her most celebrated personifications were the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, in which later times she was hardly surpassed by Mrs. Stirling. She was known for low, vulgar, and antiquated characters, and the 1806 Authentic Memoirs said she had no superior on the London stage in that line.
Chapter 66
How did Mary Ann Davenport's stage career begin?
Born Mary Ann Harvey in Launceston in 1759, she was educated at Bath, where she developed a passion for the stage and first appeared as Lappet in The Miser in 1779. She stayed at Bath two years, then joined the Exeter company, where she met and married the actor Mr. Davenport.
Chapter 66

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Why did Henry Carter's cutter get seized at Saint-Malo in 1778?
An embargo had been laid on all English trade when the French Government made a treaty with the American States. Henry Carter, unaware of this, was arrested at Saint-Malo; his cutter with sixteen guns and thirty-six men was taken from him, and he was sent to the prison at Dinan. His brother John was likewise taken, and both were held on parole at Josselin until November 1779, when the Lords of the Admiralty exchanged them for two French gentlemen.
Chapter 67
How did Henry Carter escape after being boarded in January 1788?
Badly wounded and left for dead on deck, he crept over the side when the boarding party's boat broke adrift and their guard broke. Cramped and sinking, he hauled himself along ropes under the vessel's bow to shallow water, then crawled about fifty yards before Cawsand men found him. His nose bone was cut in two and pieces of his skull later worked out.
Chapter 67
What happened to Henry Carter at Roscoff in 1793?
War had been declared between France and England, and he was arrested during the Reign of Terror. The Convention had decreed no quarter to Englishmen, placing English prisoners on the same footing as 'suspects' or 'aristocrats.' He was moved from place to place, sometimes in prison, sometimes lodged privately, and was not harshly treated, though many fellow prisoners were executed. He did not get a passport to leave until August 1795.
Chapter 67
What does the chapter say about the sources for John and Henry Carter?
For John Carter, the 'King of Prussia,' the chapter says only scattered notices and tradition survive. Henry is different: he left an autobiography transcribed and published by Mr. J. B. Cornish in 1900 as The Autobiography of a Cornish Smuggler. The chapter notes Henry is reticent about smugglers' doings and avoids naming names, since he wrote in 1809 when 'free trade' was in full swing, and he dwells more on religious experiences.
Chapter 67

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Why did Keigwin and the Bombay garrison revolt against the East India Company in 1683?
The Company, burdened by debt and the cost of defending Bombay, raised taxes and cut officers' pay, dismissing Keigwin as commandant in 1678-9. Keigwin and associates proclaimed the Company's authority at an end on December 27th, 1683, declared the island under the King's protection, and cited the need to prevent Bombay from being seized by the Siddee or Sambhajee as a principal cause.
Chapter 68
What did Keigwin do with the Company's ships and treasure after seizing power?
Keigwin took possession of the Company's ship Return and the frigate Huntley, landed treasure amounting to fifty or sixty thousand rupees, lodged it in the fort, and published a declaration that it should be employed solely in the defence of the King's island and government. The garrison of 150 English soldiers and 200 native topasses elected him governor.
Chapter 68
How did Sir Josiah Child outmaneuver Keigwin and secure his position?
Child, once thought a Whig, saw James, Duke of York would soon be King. He forced his patrons Barnardiston and Papillon out of the Company, filled their places with his own creatures, made overtures to the Court, and gave £10,000 each to Charles and James. Macaulay says his judiciously distributed bribes made him all-powerful at Court and the India House.
Chapter 68
What does Macaulay say about the East India Company's prosperity under Charles II?
Macaulay says the Company enjoyed prosperity with scarcely a parallel in trade history, exciting wonder, cupidity, and envy. Demand grew for spices, Eastern textiles and jewels, and tea became a regular import soon taxed; coffee from Mocha and saltpetre for gunpowder were also Company monopolies. Yet profits swelled a few stockholders as their number diminished.
Chapter 68

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Why did Keigwin refuse the pardon offered by President Child in 1683-4?
Keigwin indignantly refused the pardon because he would deal with no one but the King himself. He told John Child that it was Child and his brother, through greed for gold and indifference to the settlement's welfare, who had caused all the trouble. The consultation lasted until March 1683-4, and Child returned to Surat having effected nothing.
Chapter 69
What terms did the Great Seal Commission set for pardoning the Bombay rebels?
The Commission empowered President Child and the Company's ship commanders to receive Bombay's surrender and offer a generous pardon to all except the four ringleaders, who had to return to duty within twenty-four hours of notice. Rewards were set if resistance occurred: 4000 rupees for delivering up Keigwin, 2000 for Alderton, and 200 for Fletcher.
Chapter 69
How did Keigwin govern Bombay during his rebellion, according to the chapter?
The chapter states Keigwin acted with integrity, wisdom, and prudence. He dealt with native princes, induced Sambhajee the Mahratta rajah to permit factories in the Carnatic and pay 12,000 pagodas compensation, and repressed the Mogul admiral Siddee, refusing him fleet anchorage at Mazapore except for water. The author argues the Company had an admirable servant in him.
Chapter 69
What caused the fire aboard the Kent on 1st March 1825?
An officer descended into the hold with a patent lantern to check that all was fast. After handing the lamp up to be trimmed, he discovered a spirit cask adrift and sent a sailor for wood. The ship made a heavy lurch, he dropped the light, let go of the cask, and it stove; the spirits met the lamp and the hold instantly blazed.
Chapter 69

Section 704 cards

How did Captain Cobb try to prevent a rush on the boats as they were lowered?
Captain Cobb arranged for military officers to stand over the boats with drawn swords to prevent a rush as they were lowered. He also planned to place in the first boat all the ladies and as many soldiers' wives as it could safely hold, with the women wrapping themselves in whatever clothing could be found before advancing in a mournful procession to the cutter.
Chapter 70
What accident nearly doomed the first boat during its lowering, and how was it avoided?
The stern tackle was cleared, but the bow ropes got fast and the axe could not free the entangled tackle. The boat was rising out of the water and would have hung perpendicularly by the bow, spilling its occupants into the surf. Providentially a wave struck and lifted the stern, letting the seaman disentangle the tackle, and the boat was cleared from the wreck.
Chapter 70
How did Joseph Warren of S. Just distinguish himself during the rescue?
Warren, a famous wrestler of enormous strength, stood on the chains of the Cambria and caught the children as they were tossed to his arms, passed them up on deck, then lifted the women bodily from the boat as it heaved within reach and passed them over his head to the men above. He later strained his back doing this, losing his wrestling strength, and died at S. Just-in-Penwith on 28th January 1842.
Chapter 70
What did the Cornish miners and Yorkshire smelters of the Cambria do for the survivors?
On each boat's approach they took perilous stations on the chains, using their strength to seize exhausted people at each heave of the sea and drag them on deck. They also opened their stores of clothes and provisions to the naked and famished survivors, surrendered their beds to helpless women and children, and the letter credits their support as essential to Captain Cook's efforts.
Chapter 70

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What hardship did Penrose face while serving under Captain Murray near the Shetland Isles?
In 1780 Captain Murray's squadron was sent to intercept American trade passing north of the Shetland Isles. Penrose, as first lieutenant, suffered severely from the biting cold, with pleurisy, chilblains and rheumatism so bad he could not stand. The captain's illness and some officers' incapacity threw almost the whole care of the ship on him.
Chapter 71
What happened after Penrose drank warm brandy and water during a severe gale?
While keeping the first watch in a gale, Penrose ordered a glass of warm brandy and water. After drinking about half he felt warmth, animation and freedom from fatigue, then immediately fell asleep on deck. An experienced old seaman dragged him below; he was put to bed and rubbed with spirits, and after excruciating pain he recovered. He noted a young, inexperienced officer might not have saved him.
Chapter 71
How did Penrose's crew behave during the Spithead mutiny, and why?
When the mutiny broke out at Spithead after the Cleopatra's repairs were completed, Captain Penrose had the satisfaction that his own crew stood firm to their duty from beginning to end of that anxious period. The text attributes this undoubtedly to the kindly consideration with which he invariably treated his men, as reasonable beings.
Chapter 71
What difficulties did Penrose face building the floating bridge across the Adour?
The bridge of coasting vessels, decked boats, cables and planks was needed for the investment of Bayonne. The Adour bar was four hundred yards wide with an ebb tide running eight miles an hour. Squally weather delayed the flotilla until the 24th. Some vessels broached to and sank, but the attempt succeeded with fewer casualties than expected, and General Sir John Hope praised the hazardous cooperation.
Chapter 71

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How did the 1816 expedition under Lord Exmouth against Algiers and Tunis end, according to Penrose?
The ships anchored out of gun-shot and made ready for battle, but all went off quietly: the slaves on whose behalf the expedition was undertaken were ransomed on Lord Exmouth's terms, and the Bey of Tunis likewise submitted. Penrose calls it an impotent expedition, noting the Bey of Algiers was not overawed and continued his practices, so a second expedition was sent in 1816.
Chapter 72
What did Penrose observe about Ali Pasha's outward manner during the Prevesa visit?
Penrose watched Ali closely and never saw the smallest outward indication of what passed within; benevolence seemed to beam from this human butcher. Even when Ali was certainly angry and mortified at some turn in the investigations, Penrose sat a yard away and saw no token of the storm inside. Ali also asked about Penrose's family and burst into his frightful, grunting laugh.
Chapter 72
How did Ali Pasha's avarice contribute to his downfall?
Though he showed great energy at a great age and prepared to resist the Sultan's forces, Ali's fatal avarice stood in his way. With his enormous treasures he could have secured the fidelity of his troops, but he could not bring himself to deal liberally with his defenders, and most deserted. His sons and grandsons, with one exception, passed over to the enemy's camp.
Chapter 72

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How did Sir Christopher Hawkins acquire political influence in Cornish boroughs?
The chapter says Hawkins was a borough-monger who purchased pocket boroughs and controlled elections. He bought the manor of S. Ives around 1807, the fair at Mitchell, and the four fairs at Grampound, giving him control over elections there. Candidates handed him golden guineas, a share of which passed to the electors.
Chapter 73
What did the 1808 Bodmin trial of Sir Christopher Hawkins allege, and what was the outcome?
A petition led to prosecution of Hawkins and eighteen committee members. A witness swore Hawkins's documents promised twenty-four guineas to party leaders, ten guineas to two overseers, and twenty shillings per voter. No other committee member corroborated this, and the defendant was acquitted, the chapter says, to dabble in borough-mongering for the rest of his life.
Chapter 73
What did the chapter say about the Hawkins family's claimed descent from Kent?
The Cornish Hawkins family pretended to derive from a distinguished Roman Catholic Kent stock whose seat, Nash, was plundered in 1715. The chapter states no shadow of evidence supports this descent, and notes the fiction overlooked that the Kent Hawkinses were Roman Catholic and unlikely to be persecuted under Queen Mary.
Chapter 73
How did Mitchell borough's franchise and electorate change before disfranchisement?
Mitchell was a mere hamlet; in 1660 the franchise passed from inhabitants to the lord of the manor's nominees. The right of election shifted repeatedly, and by 1806 Hawkins surrendered his seat to Arthur Wellesley. Electors were reduced to five, and in 1833 those five found the borough disfranchised, a fate the chapter says it richly deserved.
Chapter 73

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What did the 1812 committee report about Trevithick's steam thrashing-machine at Trewithen?
The committee testified that the engine was lit at 8:05 and the mill began working at 9:25, consuming one bushel of coal. In four hours and three-quarters it thrashed 1,500 sheaves of barley clean with one more bushel of coal. They noted steam remained for 50 to 100 more sheaves, that common labourers could speed, slow, or stop it instantly, and preferred steam power to horse power.
Chapter 74
How did Swann recover favour and increase Penryn's voters by 200?
Swann formed a company to provide granite from the vicinity for Waterloo Bridge over the Thames, thereby providing work for the voters of Penryn. This, along with recovering favour, increased the number of voters in his constituency by 200, and Hawkins and Swann were returned. The usual petition followed and evidence of bribery emerged, with voters swearing to sums from ten shillings to ten pounds.
Chapter 74
What happened to Manasseh Lopes after the 1818 Grampound election revelations?
Voters applied to Sir Kit Hawkins, who refused to advance a penny, so they turned to Manasseh Lopes, who gave £2,000 for forty electors. The Mayor intercepted £300 and another took £140, leaving the rank and file £35 each instead of £50, and £8,000 was paid privily by a sitting member. On petition, Lopes was convicted of bribery in Devon and Cornwall, fined £10,000, and imprisoned at Exeter for two years.
Chapter 74
Why did Lord John Russell's plan to disfranchise Grampound fail to take effect in time?
Lord John Russell was prepared to extirpate bribery and particularly to disfranchise Grampound. The House of Commons agreed without a dissentient voice, but the death of George III hindered proceedings, and the last two members were returned. The chapter thus presents reform as agreed in principle yet stalled by a royal death, allowing Grampound's final members to be elected.
Chapter 74

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What did Sir Christopher Hawkins establish at S. Ives in 1822, and what did it teach?
He established a free school in Shute Street at S. Ives, opened April 11th, 1822. Admission cost one penny per week, and navigation was taught there. Captain Short's diary notes Hawkins gave £100 toward enlarging the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, and that he never distrained for rent. The author notes the school was done for a political purpose by indirect bribery.
Chapter 75
How did Sir Christopher Hawkins's S. Ives property connect to Parliament, and what ended that?
The Gentleman's Magazine for 1830 reported his S. Ives property was sold, securing the purchaser a seat in Parliament; the borough was sold by auction in London for £55,000, reportedly to the Marquess of Cleveland. The author calls it a bad bargain, since three years after the Reform Bill passed, S. Ives ceased to be a pocket borough.
Chapter 75
What did Anne Jefferies say in 1645 happened to her in the garden arbour?
At nineteen, while knitting in an arbour, she claimed six persons of small stature, all clothed in green, which she called fairies, came over the hedge. She was so frightened she fell into a convulsive fit. When recovered she cried out that they had just gone out of the window. The family attributed these expressions to her distemper, supposing her light-headed.
Chapter 75
Why did Anne Jefferies refuse to recount her experiences to Moses Pitt in 1693?
Humphry Martyn reported she would not own anything concerning the fairies or the cures, saying that if her own father were alive she would not reveal those things to him. She feared Pitt would make books or ballads of it, and said she would not have her name spread about for £500, having been questioned before justices, at sessions, in prison, and before the judges at assizes.
Chapter 75

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What did the fairies tell Anne to show the ministers who called them evil spirits?
The fairies told Anne to have the ministers read 1 John 4:1: "believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they be of God." The verse was turned down in a Bible Anne brought out, though Pitt notes Anne could not read. The ministers had argued the spirits were devilish delusions, but Anne's cures did good, not harm.
Chapter 76
What happened to Anne after Justice Tregeagle sent her to Bodmin jail?
Tregeagle, steward to the Earl of Radnor and a Cornish Justice of the Peace, had Anne jailed at Bodmin and ordered the prison-keeper to withhold food; she lived without complaining. At the sessions, Pitt and his mother were questioned about whether they carried Anne victuals. Anne was later discharged, but Tregeagle ordered she no longer live with Pitt's father.
Chapter 76
What did Pitt see through the keyhole when he knocked on Anne's chamber door?
Pitt knocked and called; Anne asked for patience. Looking through the keyhole, he saw her eating, then stand by the bedside as long as thanks might be given, make a courtesy, and open the door. She gave him a piece of bread he called the most delicious he ever ate.
Chapter 76

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How does Baring-Gould explain Anne Jefferies' cures?
The author argues her cures belong in the same category as faith cures everywhere, whether performed at Lourdes, by Christian Scientists, or by Shamans in the steppes of Tartary. He treats the early part of her story as explicable without fairies or pixies, and notes that although many "fasting girls" were exposed as impostors, Anne did not claim to fast but to be fed by fairies.
Chapter 77
What financial disaster did Moses Pitt suffer over Lord Chancellor Jeffreys' house?
Jeffreys agreed to take a house Pitt built for £300 a year and promised a ninety-nine-year lease of adjoining Crown land, urging him to hurry. Pitt spent £4000 on the building, then Jeffreys was disgraced after James II fled and William of Orange arrived. Pitt fled to Ireland, mortgaged estates for £3000, and was finally sent to the Fleet Prison in 1689.
Chapter 77
Why was Thomas Killigrew sent to Venice in 1652, and how did it go?
Charles II, sorely short of money in exile, sent Killigrew as Resident to borrow from English merchants and press the Duke for a present of money, arms, or ammunition, ideally ten thousand pistolls. Hyde says Charles doubted his suitability and sent him only to gratify Tom. The misgivings were justified: Killigrew and his servants behaved so badly that the Doge complained through his ambassador.
Chapter 77
What bold jest does Killigrew reportedly make to Charles II about Cromwell?
According to The Companion to the Playhouse, Killigrew visited the King dressed as a pilgrim bound on a long journey. Asked where he was going, he replied "To Hell." Asked his errand there, he said he would fetch back Oliver Cromwell to take care of England's affairs, since his successor took none at all. The author presents this as a story related of him, not established fact.
Chapter 77

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What trick did Killigrew play with five papers marked ALL under the King's candlestick?
Killigrew placed five papers, each bearing the word ALL, under the candlestick where Charles II supped. After the King promised pardon, he explained: the country had sent all it could to the exchequer; the City had lent all it could; the Court had spent all; and if all were not mended, the fifth would be the worse for all.
Chapter 78
How did Killigrew win his wager that the King would attend council within half an hour?
Lauderdale left the council in a rage at the King's absence. Killigrew bet him a hundred pounds he could bring Charles to council within half an hour. He told the King that Lauderdale's covetousness meant he would rather avoid paying the hundred pounds than continue plaguing the King, so Charles agreed to go and kept his word.
Chapter 78
What happened to Nicolas Roscarrock after he was accused of not going to church in 1577?
Accused at Launceston Assizes for not going to church, Roscarrock was later sent to the Tower in 1581. He was placed in a cell adjoining a racked friend to intimidate him, and was himself tortured on the rack on 14 January 1581. He spent five years in the Tower and then the Fleet until 1594, fourteen years in all.
Chapter 78
What is known about the manuscript of Roscarrock's Lives of the English Saints?
Roscarrock compiled the Lives of the English Saints at Naworth, writing the first part himself and later using an amanuensis who wrote names phonetically. Compiled roughly between 1610 and 1625, it was annotated by Roscarrock and Dom Gregory Hungate. It later passed through Edward Colman's bequest to Brent Eleigh, lost pages, and is now Cambridge University Library Add. MS. 3041.
Chapter 78

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What sources did Nicolas Roscarrock rely on for his collection of saints' lives?
Roscarrock drew mainly on printed authorities—Capgrave, Surius, Harpsfield, and Whytford's Martyrologie—and also had access to manuscripts of Edward Powell, a Welsh priest with a collection of Welsh saintly pedigrees. For Cornish saints he recorded current traditions gathered in his youth, and he possessed a manuscript Cornish life of S. Columba, though he gave only its substance rather than the original.
Chapter 79
What did W. Webbe's letter request regarding the Cornish martyrs' story?
Webbe wrote to ask the chaplain at Naworth to obtain from Sir William Hoard a copy of Nicolas Roscarrock's book and papers, which contained the story of a Christian family from Ireland—about twenty saints including S. Breage and S. Merrine—who fled persecution and were martyred in Cornwall. Roscarrock had lent his only copy to his brother and kept none.
Chapter 79
What happened to the convict mutiny plot on the Scarborough?
While the fleet sailed down the Channel, convicts on the Scarborough plotted to seize the vessel, expecting the other transports to follow and the whole fleet to fall into their hands. The scheme was betrayed by a fellow convict to the commanding officer, who informed Captain Phillips. The two ringleaders were brought aboard the Sirius and each given two dozen lashes.
Chapter 79
Why was the settlement moved from Botany Bay to Sydney Cove?
Botany Bay proved to have inferior advantages and offered no suitable spot for the colony, so Governor Phillips resolved to transfer the settlement about twelve miles north to Port Jackson, specifically Sydney Cove, named in compliment to the Secretary of State. There a flagstaff was raised, the Union Jack hoisted, and the marines fired volleys before disembarkation began the next day.
Chapter 79

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What weekly rations did male convicts receive, and how did women's rations compare?
Each male convict received weekly 7 lb. biscuits, 1 lb. flour, 7 lb. beef, 4 lb. pork, 3 pints of peas, and 6 oz. of butter. The women received one-third less. The chapter notes these rations were precisely the same as those served to the soldiers, which made the convicts' plot to rob the store seem the more unpardonable.
Chapter 80
What was Lieutenant King's mission to Norfolk Island, and what was the settlement's purpose?
The Supply sailed in mid-February under Lieutenant King, named by Captain Phillips superintendent and commandant. He took a surgeon, a petty officer, two private soldiers, two men claiming knowledge of flax-dressing, and nine male and six female convicts, with tents, tools, and six months' provisions. Norfolk Island was to be settled with a view to cultivating flax, the Phormi tenax found growing luxuriantly when Captain Cook discovered the island.
Chapter 80
What was the convicts' insurrection plot on Norfolk Island in March, and how was it revealed?
The convicts plotted to seize Mr. King on his Saturday visit to his farm, capture the surgeon, soldiers, and ship's boats, then take the ship and sail to Otaheite to establish a colony. A female convict cohabiting with a seaman who served as King's gardener revealed the plot to him. King took measures to defeat it, and several plotters were arrested and confessed.
Chapter 80
How did King change his treatment of the convicts after the plot, and why?
King had drawn the convicts around him and treated them in a kindly, even confidential and affectionate manner, given his isolation with a handful of people. After the plot he saw these felons were too ingrained with vice to appreciate such treatment. One of his first steps was to clear the ground around the settlement so future villainy could not shelter in the woods — a step to which many colonists later owed their lives.
Chapter 80

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What changes did Hicks make at Bodmin Asylum after 1848?
Hicks became Governor of Bodmin Asylum in 1848 and found the old barbarous treatment of the insane still in full practice. He at once adopted gentle methods and in a short while radically changed the entire mode of treatment, with markedly good results. The chapter illustrates this with a chained patient he nearly cured through kindly treatment.
Chapter 81
How did Daniel trick the circus manager about piebald horses?
Daniel told the manager that speckled horses never paid turnpikes in Cornwall, and when pressed said only that he stood by what he said. The manager rode on, quarreled with the toll-taker, and returned angry. Daniel then explained the trick: the horses don't pay because you have to pay for them.
Chapter 81
What did Daniel tell the parson he wanted promised about marriage?
Daniel recounted that while keeping company with a maid he asked the parson to promise never to marry him to that maid when he was drunk. The parson agreed. Daniel thanked him, saying he was then all right, for he would take good care the parson never did it when he was sober.
Chapter 81
What does the chapter suggest about the origins of Hicks's stories?
The author suggests Hicks picked up and appropriated stories wherever he could find them. A friend told Hicks two anecdotes in Plymouth, and that evening Hicks retold both at dinner as if they had happened to himself the previous week. The author notes some of Hicks's stories are very old chestnuts, and the Rabbits and Onions tale is also told by Rosegger of a Styria trial.
Chapter 81

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Why did the 1549 rebels in Devon and Cornwall rise, and what happened at Exeter?
The rebels objected to the new Book of Common Prayer and forced a priest to say Mass in the old manner at Sampford Courtenay. Joined by gentry like Sir Thomas Pomeroy and Humphry Arundell, they grew to 10,000 men and besieged Exeter, attempting to scale walls, burn gates, and mine them. The citizens countered with fresh defences and a water-filled countermine. Lord Russell defeated them at Clyst Heath with great slaughter.
Chapter 83
How did Sir Anthony Kingston trick and execute Nicholas Boyer, Mayor of Bodmin?
Kingston wrote that he would dine with Boyer, who prepared a lavish meal. Before dinner Kingston asked him to erect a gallows in front of his door. After the meal he led Boyer out by the hand, asked if the gallows could hold a stout man, and told him to get up, saying there was no remedy since Boyer had been a busy rebel. Boyer was hanged without trial.
Chapter 83
What happened to the miller's servant who impersonated his master before Kingston?
The miller, a 'busy rebel,' told his tall servant to claim he was the miller if anyone asked. When Kingston inquired, the servant said he had kept the mill three years. Kingston ordered him hanged; when the man protested he was only the servant, Kingston replied that either way he was a knave, and when others confirmed the truth, he said the servant could do his master no better service than to hang in his stead.
Chapter 83
What does the chapter say about Tobias Martin's poems and religious views?
The chapter states his poems were published at Helston in 1831 with a second edition in 1856, and judges them absolutely worthless as poetry, containing no original or poetic idea. It quotes one short composition on content and submission to heaven's will. In religion, the chapter says Toby Martin was a Deist or Unitarian; he was inclined to corpulency, had a large open countenance, and stood five feet nine inches.
Chapter 83

Section 843 cards

Why did the Council order church bells removed in Devon and Cornwall?
Strype reports that after the rebellion was suppressed, the Council remembered bells had been used to summon the disaffected to arms. In September an order went to Lord Russell to take away all bells in Devonshire and Cornwall, leaving one per steeple to call people to church—partly to prevent future insurrection and partly to help defray the King's costs.
Chapter 84
Who was John Nichols Tom, and what delusion drove him abroad?
Tom was son of William Tom, landlord of the Joiners' Arms, S. Columb, born 10th November 1799. Stories of Lady Hester Stanhope, the 'Queen of Lebanon,' and Lamartine's account of her mare foaled ready saddled convinced him he was predestined as forerunner of Christ. With malt profits he sailed for Constantinople and Syria, presenting himself as Sir William Courtenay, Knight.
Chapter 84
How did the consul at Beirout handle Tom's request?
Tom presented himself to the English consul as Sir William Courtenay, Knight, and asked for an escort to the Lebanon to see Hester Stanhope and announce he was the forerunner of the Messiah. The consul judged him not wholly sane and, in a dilemma, decided to send one mad head to the other, granting the escort to see the result.
Chapter 84

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How did Lady Hester Stanhope respond to Sir William's claim to be Heaven's messenger?
She judged him an impostor, since none of the prophecies that were to precede the Messiah's coming had yet been fulfilled, and no prophecy mentioned a messenger appointed to announce that coming. She advised him to return to his native country, and he was ejected from the house as an impostor.
Chapter 85
What offices and titles did Courtenay claim after returning to England?
He styled himself Sir William Percy Honeywood Courtenay, Knight of Malta, King of Jerusalem, and Prince of Abyssinia. He also claimed to be the rightful owner of the Earl of Devon's estates and de jure King of Jerusalem, and at Canterbury he polled 375 votes against opponents who gained 832 and 802.
Chapter 85
Why was Courtenay convicted of perjury at the Maidstone Assizes in 1833?
He swore he had witnessed a smuggler action near Goodwin Sands and that no tubs of spirits were thrown overboard. It was proved that on the day of the action he had been twenty-five miles away at Boughton-under-Blean and was in church at the very hour. He was convicted and sentenced to three months' imprisonment followed by seven years' transportation.
Chapter 85
How did Courtenay attract followers and money in Kent after leaving the asylum?
He claimed to be the true proprietor of fine Kent estates but said he would not take possession for two years. He promised that every shilling lent would be repaid as a pound, and that followers would receive rent-free land according to their deserts. He also gave presents, such as two horses worth £40 to a man prosecuted by the Revenue, and taught followers his battle song.
Chapter 85

Section 862 cards

What did Courtenay claim about his body and his identity?
Courtenay presented himself as Jesus Christ returned to earth to sift the wheat from the chaff before establishing a millennial kingdom. He showed hands, feet, and side marked with red as supposed wounds. The chapter notes this must have been conscious fraud, since after his death no such scars could be found. Many poor and ignorant people believed and followed him.
Chapter 86
What happened to the prisoners tried at the Maidstone Assizes?
At the Maidstone Assizes on 9 August 1838, before Lord Denman, ten prisoners were found guilty of murder and condemned to death, but were told their sentence would be commuted and their lives spared. Prosecutions against the remaining prisoners were not proceeded with, and they were discharged.
Chapter 86

Section 874 cards

What sentences were given to the prisoners after the Blean Wood affray?
Meares and Wills were ordered transported for life, and Price for ten years. The other seven received one year's imprisonment with hard labour. A pension of £40 per annum was granted to the widow of Meares the constable. The chapter notes that the affair drew attention to the peasantry's ignorance and led to schools being erected at Dunkirk.
Chapter 87
What happened to the Gluvias parish register for 1618, and why does it matter?
The register, which goes back to the mid-sixteenth century, has the page or pages removed for burials from early 1618 to mid-1621. The chapter says this looks as if the family sought to destroy every trace of the crime. It is the main clue that the Bohelland tragedy has a factual basis, though the names cannot be recovered from it.
Chapter 87
Why does the chapter distrust the Bohelland narrative's details?
The chapter says several points awaken mistrust. The son's life story is told only to his sister, who dies, and the private scene of the wife urging her husband to murder cannot be known since both later kill themselves. The chapter concludes that this part must be painted in by guesswork, though a substratum of fact is not doubted.
Chapter 87
Who adapted the Bohelland story for the stage, and how did he change it?
Lillo turned the story into a tragedy, The Fatal Curiosity, in 1736. According to him the family was named Wilmot. He took a slight liberty with the story by making the returned sailor present himself to the girl he had loved fifteen years before, rather than to his sister. He laid the scene at Penryn.
Chapter 87

Section 884 cards

Who was Mary Kelynack and what did she do in 1851?
Mary Kelynack was a Cornish fish-wife born in 1766, wife of William Kelynack. In 1851, at about eighty-four, she walked from Penzance to London—nearly three hundred miles—to see the Great Exhibition. She visited the Mansion House, where the Lord Mayor gave her a sovereign, and was presented to the Queen and Prince Albert. She died in Penzance in 1855.
Chapter 88
How did Captain Rogers capture the French privateer Le Jeune Richard?
On 1 October 1807, Rogers commanded the packet Windsor Castle, with six 4-pounders and twenty-eight men, against the privateer's six 6-pounders, an 18-pounder, and ninety-two men. After repelling a boarding attempt, he fired a 1-pounder carronade loaded with double grape and musket balls into the boarding party, then led his crew onto the schooner and captured her.
Chapter 88
What rewards did Rogers receive for capturing the privateer?
For his intrepid conduct Rogers received the thanks of the Postmaster-General, promotion to captain with command of another packet, 100 guineas in addition to his share of the prize (though no prize allowance was usual), the freedom of the City of London, and an illuminated address with a sword of honour from the inhabitants of Tortola.
Chapter 88
How did John Burton describe his early life as a pot-hawker?
John Burton, son of Joseph Burton, a Bodmin china and glass dealer, hawked pots and glass with his brother Joe. He recalled rising at five on 24 December 1853, arguing with a toll-keeper at Callywith gate, and stopping at the Jamaica Inn for a hot squab pie, pocketing the crust for the moors. He described the brothers as 'as happy as sandboys.'
Chapter 88

Section 894 cards

How did the Jamaica Inn change after mail-coaches were replaced by trains?
The chapter states that when trains ran and coaches were given up, the Jamaica Inn fell from its high estate, was converted into a temperance house, was far from clean, harboured innumerable fleas, and did little business. Of late, the chapter notes, it has entirely recovered its credit. It stands nine hundred feet above the sea, near Bolventor and Dozmare Pool.
Chapter 89
What event in 1857 changed the direction of John Burton's life?
Sent with Paul Mewton carrying a crate of china to S. Columb, they stopped at Porth where Mr. Stephens gave each strong grog. Paul could stand it but John could not; crossing a stile he lost balance and the crate shattered. His teetotal father, Joseph Burton, berated him over drink and the loss, beginning altercations that led John to leave and set up alone in Falmouth in 1862 with thirty shillings.
Chapter 89
How did John Burton build his curiosity business in Falmouth?
After hawking crockery, he bought alligators from sailors and sold them to herbalists as imposing shop displays. In 1865 Roman coins found at Pennance Farm prompted him to become an antiquary; he bought parrots, apes and curiosities cheaply from sailors, secured premises in Market Street, and stocked odds and ends gathered across Cornwall. He advertised extensively and became, the chapter says, a very Whiteley of curiosities.
Chapter 89
How does the chapter characterize Burton's blunt manner and wit?
The author argues Burton had by nature great ready wit and a bluntness he cultivated, which gave poignancy to dealings with him, but this bluntness, part of the stock-in-trade, was often carried too far and became impertinence. He genuinely loved his curios and parted with them reluctantly, unlike dealers who press wares on hesitant buyers. The author calls his letter to the Prince mere insolence, mistaking rudeness for fun.
Chapter 89

Section 903 cards

How did Shovel burn the Tripolitan pirate ships, and what reward followed?
Lieutenant Shovel was sent by Sir John Narborough to demand satisfaction from the Dey of Tripoli, who treated him insolently. Sent again to observe the pirate fleet, Shovel reported that the ships could be cut out or burned despite the harbour batteries, and volunteered to command the boat expedition. He burned the guard-ship and four men-of-war under the castle walls and forced the Dey to accept Narborough's peace terms; he was soon made captain of the Sapphire.
Chapter 90
What happened to Sir Cloudesley Shovel's fleet near Scilly in October 1707?
Sailing home from Gibraltar, Shovel's fleet was enveloped in fog and, believing the Channel open, ran onto the rocks of Scilly about eight at night on 22 October. The Association, with Shovel aboard, struck near the Bishop and his Clerks and went down with all hands; the Eagle and Romney were also lost, and the Firebrand foundered, though her captain and twenty-four men escaped in a boat. The Royal Arms and S. George escaped.
Chapter 90
What is the legend of the sailor hanged before the wreck, and how does the chapter refute it?
A Scilly story holds that a local sailor warned Shovel the fleet was too far north and would hit the rocks, so the admiral had him hanged at the yard-arm, granting only his request to read Scripture first; he read Psalm 109's imprecations. The chapter argues this could only come from a survivor of the Association, yet no one survived it: the sole survivor was George Laurence, quartermaster of the Romney, so he could know nothing of events aboard the Association.
Chapter 90

Section 914 cards

What did Scillonians blame Sir Cloudesley for, according to the chapter?
The chapter says the boy whose advice was ignored was probably drowned, and his parents or relations on Scilly resented Sir Cloudesley because the wreck was not avoided. Over time they magnified the incident, turning what the author calls an error of judgment into a crime.
Chapter 91
How was Sir Cloudesley's body identified when taken up?
Edmund Herbert's account says Mr. Child Paxton of the Arundell identified him by a black mole under his left ear and by a broken first joint of a forefinger, injured playing tables. He also had a shot in his right arm and another in his left thigh, and his face was fresh when washed.
Chapter 91
What did the dying woman confess about Sir Cloudesley?
Between 1732 and 1736, after Lady Shovel's death, a dying woman told a clergyman of S. Mary's Island that the Admiral had come ashore alive but faint, and she squeezed the life out of him for his clothes and rings. She produced the long-missing emerald ring, which was sent to Lord Dursley.
Chapter 91
How many lives were lost, and which ships were totally lost?
Nearly 1800 lives were lost in the disaster. The Association, the Eagle, and the Romney were totally lost with every soul aboard except the one survivor already mentioned. The Firebrand struck and foundered, but her captain and seventeen men were saved in a boat, and two more reached shore on wreckage.
Chapter 91

Section 924 cards

Why did Sir Richard Grenville search Wolvedon on June 8, 1577?
Grenville, sheriff of Cornwall, came with justices of peace to search Wolvedon for Cuthbert Mayne, a priest supposed to be harboured by Francis Tregian. A first hasty search found no seminary priest; after Tregian joked about it, Grenville ordered a thorough inquest and Mayne was found concealed in a hole under a turret.
Chapter 92
What was the legal basis for condemning Cuthbert Mayne?
Mayne was indicted for high treason for traitorously obtaining from the See of Rome a printed instrument of absolution, contrary to a statute of the Queen's thirteenth year. Judge Marwood held that even an expired Bull was treason by the law of this realm, saying such things were never of force or worth a straw in England.
Chapter 92
How were the laymen who aided Mayne charged and punished?
Francis Tregian and gentlemen such as Richard Tremaine, John Kempe, and Richard Hore fell under the Statute of Præmunire and later acts, charged with receiving Mayne, hearing him say Mass, or absenting themselves from their parish church. All pleaded not guilty, but the jury convicted them; Mayne was condemned to death, the rest to forfeit lands and property and be imprisoned.
Chapter 92
What does the chapter say justified Elizabeth's harsh laws against recusants?
The author argues there was some justification for the Queen and Council, surrounded by dangers: the Papal Bull of excommunication encouraged Mary, Queen of Scots' supporters, the Ridolfi plot led to Norfolk's execution in 1572, and fear of French or Spanish invasion combined with insurrections at home. The author says this explains but in no degree justifies the stringent laws.
Chapter 92

Section 933 cards

What did the condemned man protest about Mr. Tregian at his execution?
He protested that his master, Mr. Tregian, was never privy to his having the Jubilee and the Agnus Dei, the things for which he was condemned. A justice interrupted him and ordered the hangman to put the rope about his neck, saying let him preach afterward, and the ladder was overturned before he could finish reciting In manus tuas Domine.
Chapter 93
How long was Francis Tregian imprisoned, and who released him?
Francis Tregian remained in prison eighteen years and was finally released by order of Queen Elizabeth in or about 1597, after which he lived in London on the bounty of his friends. He was first committed at age twenty-eight and was moved among Launceston, Windsor Castle, the Marshalsea, the King's Bench prison, and the Fleet.
Chapter 93
What happened to the Tregian family after the Gunpowder Plot?
His son Francis repossessed part of the ancestral property by purchase with help from friends and relatives, but in January 1608, owing to hostility provoked by the Gunpowder Plot against Papists, the family was again plundered of its estates. By the Heralds' Visitation of Cornwall in 1620, the family had vanished from the landed and heraldic gentry.
Chapter 93

Section 944 cards

Who was Ann Glanville, and why was she called 'Mother'?
Ann Glanville was a Saltash waterwoman born in 1796, wife of a waterman and mother of fourteen children. The chapter says she was a mother to the British tar indiscriminately: whatever trouble a sailor got into ashore, he never wanted a backer if Ann was near, and sailors cherished her memory as a friend.
Chapter 94
What did Ann Glanville's Saltash women's crew achieve at the 1850 Havre regatta?
Captain Russell of H.M.S. Brunswick suggested Ann and her crew challenge the French at Havre. Despite an unfair start, with six boats ahead after five minutes, Ann called 'Bend your backs to it, maidens; and hoorah for old England!' and the Saltash boat passed every French boat, winning by one hundred yards.
Chapter 94
How did Jonathan Simpson discover his wife's lover, and what followed?
Simpson announced a trip to Launceston, returned unexpectedly, and saw the oak chest lid move but said nothing. He sent his wife on an errand, summoned the wife of 'Pil-Garlic,' and exposed the hidden man. The chapter says the vexation changed his life: he sold his business, refused his wife back, took his five thousand pounds, and left Bristol.
Chapter 94
What happened when Simpson's reprieve arrived at the gallows?
Simpson was condemned to hang at the Old Bailey, but relatives at Launceston obtained a reprieve by bribery and persuasion at the last moment, while the rope was round his neck. Asked what he thought of it, he said no more than he thought of his dying day. The turnkey then refused him without a fresh warrant, so he went free.
Chapter 94

Section 954 cards

How did Jonathan Simpson rob Lord Delamere?
Simpson rode up to Lord Delamere's coach and claimed he had been waylaid by two rogues nearby. Delamere sent his armed mounted escort in pursuit, and Simpson used their absence to rob the nobleman of forty pounds. Afterward Lord Delamere vowed never again to show kindness to a stranger.
Chapter 95
How was Simpson finally captured near Acton?
Two captains of the Foot Guards fought him after he tried to rob them both together. Simpson resisted bravely and might have escaped, but one officer shot his horse, which fell and pinned him. Already wounded in both arms and a leg, he was overpowered by arriving passengers and sent to Newgate, then hanged at Tyburn on 8 September 1686.
Chapter 95
How did Davies Giddy help launch Humphry Davy's career?
While Giddy was with surgeon Bingham Borlase at Penzance, he met Davy, then a lad of about fourteen articled to Borlase. Giddy recognized Davy's flashes of genius and recommended him to go to Dr. Beddoes's pump-house at Clifton as an assistant at a modest salary. Giddy himself abandoned medicine for full-time scientific work.
Chapter 95
What was Davies Gilbert's connection to the Royal Society presidency?
After Sir Joseph Banks died, Humphry Davy was unanimously called to the chair, and Gilbert was nominated Treasurer under the man he had helped start. When ill-health forced Davy abroad in 1827, Gilbert acted as Vice-President, then was chosen President on Davy's retirement. He had urged a fixed term rather than a life presidency, and later stepped aside for the Duke of Sussex.
Chapter 95

Section 962 cards

Why did Sussex people on the Eastbourne estate reject the Cornish stiles?
The stiles were of gridiron fashion, strips of stone laid with intervals between them, which kept horses, donkeys, and cattle from crossing. The Sussex people revolted, declaring they would not break their legs to please any Cornish Giddy or Sussex Gilbert, and he was forced to remove them all.
Chapter 96
According to tradition, why did James Hoskin choose burial away from consecrated ground?
Tradition in Ludgvan says Hoskin kissed the parson's wife, and the rector, J. Stephens, vowed that if he survived Hoskin he would bury him in the most obscure corner of the churchyard. To defeat the parson's intentions, Hoskin arranged for his body to be buried at Castell-an-Dinas. The author says he cannot confirm the story but notes a lasting difference between the two men.
Chapter 96

Section 974 cards

Why does James Hoskin give for not bringing the captain to justice?
Hoskin offers three reasons: prosecuting might destroy the happiness of the captain's wife, a dear woman; the mate would have sworn in the captain's favour; and accusing the captain would have done no good to the dead cook. The narrator calls these reasons not very satisfactory.
Chapter 97
How does Hoskin describe the Delaware steamboat and its fare?
Hoskin says the boat is worked by a steam engine turning a wheel on each side, with wide boards on each spoke like a water undershot wheel. It is 100 feet long, wide and roomy, and keeps a tavern on board. The passage is very cheap: only 3 dollars for 100 miles, baggage included.
Chapter 97
What does Fulton's torpedo invention do, and how did the brig captain defend against it?
Hoskin describes Mr. Fulton's torpedo as designed to sink under anchored vessels and blow them up, or anchor underwater to blow up ships entering a harbour. Congress voted him 6000 dollars for trials. At a New York trial against the Argus brig, the captain cast a net around the brig and hung shot and heavy weights from the yards to destroy the torpedo; Fulton failed that time but claimed improvements.
Chapter 97
What advice does Hoskin's 1803 letter give his children about lying and religion?
Hoskin warns that if you tell a lie you will tell another, then ten, and lying leads to cheating and other vices, costing peace of mind. He urges them to seek virtue and leave the rest to Providence, and suggests falling in love with Quakers would advance piety. He warns against Methodists' Class Meetings, calling the heart the devil's tinder-box.
Chapter 97

Section 984 cards

What does the author say John Harris lacked as a poet?
The author argues Harris had no genius or originality: he could receive impressions from nature like a mirror but could not create, only imitate. His verses read smoothly but lack a vital spark and will not live. The author compares him to a burning-glass that focusses sunlight versus a mere mirror, and ranks him above Edward Capern but far below Burns and Waugh.
Chapter 98
How did Harris describe his more than twenty years as an underground miner?
Harris wrote that he toiled at Dolcoath from morning till night and often night till morning, in sulphur and dust almost to suffocation, sometimes standing in slime and water above his knees, working naked to the waist in badly ventilated levels, or on rope-hung stages where his life depended on a single nail. He claimed exhaustion, thirst, and irregular wages, but the author doubts several of these details.
Chapter 98
How did Harris meet Rev. G. Collins, and what happened at that supper?
At supper in Troon-Moor house, with fried onions cooking, the family heard a knock; a gruff voice asked, 'Does the young Milton live here?' It was Rev. G. Collins, who joined them and ate the onions with a spoon, calling them fried leeks. He asked for Harris's latest poem, 'The Child's First Prayer,' and tears streamed down his face as he read it.
Chapter 98
What prize did Harris win in 1864, and what did he receive?
In 1864 a prize was offered for the best poem on the tercentenary of Shakespeare's birth, competed for by over a hundred persons in Great Britain and America. Harris won and was presented with a gold watch. The author notes its poetic value cannot be estimated without knowing the poems that failed and the judges' discrimination.
Chapter 98

Section 994 cards

How did Edward Chapman survive falling into a tin mine shaft?
While drunk and returning from Redruth, Chapman fell over twenty fathoms into a shaft but was stopped after fifteen fathoms on a cross drift above water. He braced his back and feet against the sides and thrust his sword into the opposite wall to hold himself until tinners, hearing his voice, hauled him up with ropes after about seventeen hours.
Chapter 99
How did John Coke's tin fraud get discovered?
Coke, managing Sir Francis Godolphin's mines, stamped his master's tin with a dolphin but diverted some for himself stamped with a cat. Lady Godolphin visited the blowing-house and found more cat-marked blocks than dolphin ones. She revealed this at dinner by saying she had seen a cat eat the dolphin, and Coke was soon dismissed.
Chapter 99
What happened to Thomas Coke, grandson of John Coke, according to Hals?
Thomas Coke inherited the estate, bought in his brother's widow's jointure dearly, and built the costly unfinished house at Tregasa. His wife Lance's extravagance forced him to sell lands and mortgage Tregasa and other lands to Hugh Boscawen for about fourteen thousand pounds. He fell into want and died suddenly by slipping into a shallow tin pit.
Chapter 99
How did Thomas Pellow end up a captive in Morocco?
Born at Penryn around 1704, Pellow left the Latin school to sail with his uncle John on the Francis, bound for Genoa with pilchards. His uncle made him work as a common seaman and study, punishing him with the cat-o'-nine-tails. Off Cape Finisterre, Sallee pirates captured the ship and carried the crew to Morocco, where Pellow was about eleven.
Chapter 99

Section 1004 cards

How did Thomas Pellow avoid fully converting to Islam under torture?
Pellow says he was bastinadoed and had flesh burned off his bones until he submitted, but he held up his finger to signal outward compliance while calling on God to forgive him, insisting he never gave the consent of his heart. The author presents this as Pellow's own account.
Chapter 100
Why did the Sultan reward Pellow for refusing him entry to the harem?
Pellow, as chief porter, had orders to admit no one without notice. When the Sultan knocked unannounced, Pellow refused entry and fired his blunderbuss through the door. The Sultan was delighted by his trustworthiness, beheaded the two door-keepers who had admitted him, and promoted Pellow to his bodyguard.
Chapter 100
What was 'tossing,' the punishment Pellow describes as peculiar to the Moors?
The condemned man was seized by three or four strong negroes who threw him up and spun him, pitching him down head foremost. Their skill let them break his neck, dislocate his shoulder, or let him fall with less hurt, repeated as often as the Emperor ordered. Pellow notes the Emperor usually gave such orders by signs rather than words.
Chapter 100
What does Pellow say about the labour and conditions of Christian slaves in Morocco?
Pellow describes dawn beatings, stamping earth and lime in wooden boxes, quarrying and hauling stone, and skilled men making gunpowder yet treated no better. At night they were lowered into round subterranean dungeons about five fathoms wide and three deep, fed barley meal and a little oil, and some risked leaping high walls for wild onions.
Chapter 100

Section 1013 cards

According to the chapter, what did Richard Roberts do to found the Robartes family fortune?
Richard Roberts of Truro, originally a hind, traded in wood and furze for tin smelting. He contracted with owners of coppices, furzy downs and peat bottoms, gathered supplies in one store at Truro, and also obtained coals from Wales, selling fuel to mining adventurers at a profit. His son John continued the business and lent money to miners.
Chapter 101
How did John Roberts profit from the Cornish tin miners beyond selling fuel?
John Roberts lent cash to the small, capital-poor mining adventurers at interest the chapter calls extortionate. Interest was paid not in cash but in tin, valued arbitrarily by the moneylender. He also advanced tools, timber for shoring shafts, and pumping machinery. The chapter notes the working miner stayed poor while the moneylender grew wealthy.
Chapter 101
What does the chapter say about European renegades in Morocco, citing Dr. Brown?
The chapter says renegades were mostly scoundrels—escaped forçats and vagabonds—though Dr. Brown knew of no British renegade then living, the last respectable one, a Scotchman at Rabat, having died two years before. Brown cites Count Joseph de Saulty, a deserter who became Abd-er-Rhuman, and the English officer Inglis Bashaw, said to have died of poison.
Chapter 101

Section 1024 cards

What did Carew report about the extreme toil of poor tinners?
Carew states that in most places the tinners' toil was so extreme they could not endure it above four hours a day, and were succeeded by 'spels'; the residue of the time they wore out at coytes, kayles, or like idle exercises. The chapter frames this as evidence of how hard their work was, on whom the usurers preyed.
Chapter 102
How did Richard Roberts escape prosecution for usury and gain his titles?
Richard Roberts was threatened with prosecution by the Privy Seal for usury and escaped trial only by paying a bribe of £12,000. He bought a baronetcy from James I in 1621 and was created Baron Truro in 1625. One charge against Buckingham at impeachment was receiving £10,000 from Roberts for negotiating his elevation to the Barony of Truro, confirmed by Roberts's own deposition.
Chapter 102
What happened to Essex's army in Cornwall in 1644?
The King and Prince Maurice pursued Essex into the narrow extremity of Cornwall, and Grenville and Astley cut off supplies by land and sea. Goring drove the enemy into a strip between the Fowey and S. Blazey rivers. Through Goring's carelessness, the enemy horse slipped through the lines on the night of 30-31 August 1644; Essex, Lord Roberts, and officers escaped by ship to Plymouth on September 1st, leaving Skippon and the foot to capitulate.
Chapter 102
What was the Self-denying Ordinance and how did it affect Lord Roberts?
At Cromwell's instance a committee framed the Self-denying Ordinance, excluding members of both Houses from civil and military employments except specified offices. It passed both Houses on April 3rd, 1645, and Essex, Warwick, Manchester, Denbigh, Roberts, and many others resigned their commands, receiving Parliament's thanks. The chapter says Roberts's zeal for the cause then rapidly cooled.
Chapter 102

Section 1034 cards

What happened to Demetrius and Thomas after the fall of Constantinople?
Mohammed made war on Demetrius and Thomas, and the Albanians subject to Thomas revolted. In 1459 Mohammed entered the Morea and reduced Corinth. Thomas fled to Italy with his wife and children, while Demetrius submitted to the Sultan, who carried him to Constantinople, where he died in abject slavery in 1470. Thomas was received by Pope Pius II in 1461 with a pension of six thousand ducats.
Chapter 103
How does the Landulph brass inscription differ from historians' accounts of Thomas's sons?
Historians record only two sons of Thomas, Andrew and Manuel, but the inscription in Landulph church names a third, John, whom Italian writers have not mentioned. The brass traces the line from Theodoro Paleologus of Pesaro back through Camilio, Prosper, Theodoro, and John to Thomas, second brother to Constantine, the last emperor to reign in Constantinople before the Turkish conquest.
Chapter 103
What became of Andrew and Manuel Paleologus according to the chapter?
Andrew, the eldest, married a woman from the streets of Rome and died childless in 1502, bequeathing his empty honours to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain after having previously sold them to Charles VIII of France. Manuel, the second son, revisited his native country and was granted a train of Christians and Moslems to attend him to his grave; Gibbon says he accepted two beautiful females from the Sultan and his surviving son was lost in the habit and religion of a Turkish slave.
Chapter 103
How did Theodore Paleologus come to England and marry, and what is known of his descendants?
The chapter says it is unknown why Theodore came to England, possibly in the train of Sir Henry Killigrew and Sir Nicholas Lower; the Paleologi were certainly given Clifton in Landulph, a Lower mansion, as their residence. Theodore married Mary Balls in 1615 and had three sons, Theodore, John, and Ferdinando, and two daughters. Theodore was a lieutenant in the Parliamentary army in 1642 and was buried in Westminster Abbey in 1644.
Chapter 103

Section 1043 cards

How does the index describe James Silk Buckingham's career and causes?
The index credits Buckingham with founding the British and Foreign Institute (465), exploring in Egypt (460), suggesting the Suez Canal (459), traveling to India in disguise (462), and conflict with the East India Company (460-5). It also notes he was a youthful prisoner in love (458), a linguist (458, 462), quelled a corn riot (457), and suffered for his love of freedom (462, 463).
Chapter 104
What does the index say about the last Lord Camelford's conduct?
The index says the last Lord Camelford was acquitted and quit the Navy, and lists his birth and education (319), a duel with Mr. Best (324-327), being embroiled in town (323, 324), a crazy scheme of assassination (322), shooting Peterson (321), and being under arrest (320, 321). It also notes he served on the Guardian (319).
Chapter 104
What does the index record about the Braddon family and Laurence Braddon?
The index lists the Braddon family's arms (107) and Captain William Braddon (96). Laurence Braddon (96, 107) is described as author of the Enquiry (104, 106), attacking Bishop Burnet (106), being imprisoned and tried (99, 100, 102), and reporting the murder of Essex (98-103).
Chapter 104

Section 1053 cards

What does the index indicate about the Cornish language in the chapter?
The index lists the Cornish language as current at page 243, with its decline noted at pages 243-4. It records that Cornish was spoken by Dolly Pentreath at pages 238-45 and that it was spoken in Mousehole at page 242.
Chapter 105
What does the index show about Samuel Foote's career and character?
The index lists Foote's early life at 280, 282, 284; his mimicry at 283, 286-7, 289, 292-4; his jocularity at 283, 292-6; his caricaturing of friends at 288-9; his extravagance at 287 and 290; his rebuilding of the Haymarket at 290; his appearance as Othello at 285; and his trial at 295.
Chapter 105
Which executions does the index list, and at what pages?
The index lists executions including Bartlett at 395 and 327, Bosavern Penlez at 274, Cuthbert Mayne at 658, Eulalia Page at 665, Hawkins and Kendal at 140, Humphrey Arundell at 592, James and William Lightfoot at 122, James Tyley at 402, Jonathan Simpson at 674, and the Mayor of Bodmin at 590, among others.
Chapter 105

Section 1064 cards

What does the index record about fossils and granite?
The index lists fossils as never found in granite, and separately notes a superstition about their origin. This is an index entry pointing to pages 95 and 4, not an explanation of the superstition itself.
Chapter 106
What does the index say about Goldsmith and the Logan Stone?
The index credits Goldsmith, Lieutenant, with displacing the Logan Stone, describing the displacement, and replacing the Logan Stone; it also notes his death and lists Oliver Goldsmith separately. Davies Gilbert is listed in connection with the Logan Rock.
Chapter 106
How does the index characterize Sir Christopher Hawkins's political activities?
The index calls Hawkins a borough-monger, notes his influence at Grampound and at S. Ives, his seats as M.P. for Mitchell and Penryn, that he encouraged inventions, acquired land, and was tried for corruption.
Chapter 106
What does the index record about John Harris, the miner poet?
The index lists John Harris as a miner poet with early versifications, escapes from death, his own account of his life, a prize poem on Shakespeare, reading of Shakespeare, Byron and Burns, and notes his talent and vanity.
Chapter 106

Section 1074 cards

What does the index record about Richard Vinnicombe Hoskin?
The index lists 'Hoskin, Richard Vinnicombe, 683,' giving only the name and a single page reference. No biographical details, dates, or events are supplied in this entry, so the chapter identifies him solely by name and the page on which he appears.
Chapter 107
How does the index treat the Killigrew family's connection to the stage?
Under 'Killigrew family, the,' the index gives page references and adds the note 'stage-struck,' linking the family to theatrical pursuits. Separate entries cover individual Killigrews such as Thomas, whose plays and dealings at the Restoration are indexed, and Charles and Thomas junior.
Chapter 107
What does the index say about Jane Killigrew and the Spanish murders?
The index states that Jane Killigrew 'contrives Spanish murders' and was 'protected by Penryn,' while also noting the murders were 'wrongly attributed to' her. A separate entry says Mary Killigrew was 'involved in Spanish murders.' The index thus records both the accusation against Jane and its correction.
Chapter 107
How is Robert Jeffery's story summarized in the index?
The index lists Robert Jeffery as having been 'impressed for Navy,' 'left on Sombrero,' and as a 'thief,' with a 'Government inquiry concerning' him and a note that he 'exploits his privations.' Related entries cover Captain Lake, who left Jeffery on Sombrero and was court-martialled.
Chapter 107

Section 1084 cards

What did William Noye invent and frame while serving as Attorney-General?
The chapter's index notes that William Noye, M.P. and Attorney-General, framed the ship-money tax (pages 330-333) and invented a soap monopoly (pages 332, 334). It also records that he was used by Laud and wrote on Prynne (pages 335-337), and that his character is described at pages 329 and 340.
Chapter 108
What does the index record about Thomas Pellow's captivity among the Moors?
Thomas Pellow was taken captive by the Moors (page 707) and later escaped to England (page 716). The index notes he was given a wife (page 709), that he refused admission to the Sultan (page 708), and that his military ability is described at page 712.
Chapter 108
What does the index say about Anthony Payne's size and strength?
The index lists Anthony Payne's gigantic proportions (pages 181, 184) and examples of his strength (page 182), plus his valour in fight (pages 182-183). It also records his portrait by Kneller (pages 183-185) and the burial of Anthony Payne at page 184.
Chapter 108
What does the index record about William Pengelly's early life and geology?
The index notes William Pengelly's birth (page 1) and his early escape from fire (page 1), his life at sea (pages 2, 4), and starting school at Torquay (page 5). It records his first geological lesson (page 4) and his geological finds at Kent's Cavern (pages 8, 9), plus his advice to geological students (page 10).
Chapter 108

Section 1094 cards

What is Dolly Pentreath known for, and what details of her life does the chapter note?
Dolly Pentreath is identified as the last speaker of Cornish. The chapter notes her personal appearance, her death and epitaph, and that she once saved a deserter. These details appear under her entry in the index, which points to pages 238-45.
Chapter 109
What roles and actions are attributed to Hugh Peters in the index?
Hugh Peters is described as chaplain to Cromwell and to the Parliamentarians, a collector for the distressed, a commissioner of law, and one who incited regicide by sermons and personal influence. He went to New England, lived in Rotterdam, and was tried and died. The index also notes accusations against him and that he appropriated moneys.
Chapter 109
What does the index record about the Pentreath and Polwheyrell families?
Dolly Pentreath is listed with her death and epitaph, her status as last speaker of Cornish, her personal appearance, and her saving a deserter; Nicholas Pentreath also appears. The Polwheyrell entries name Isabel, James, Joan, Margery, Nichola, Nicholas, and Richard, all tied to the same page range, 614-615.
Chapter 109
What does the index say about pirates at Penzance and related pirate activity?
Pirates at Penzance are listed at pages 130-2. Other entries note pirates attacking the Windsor Castle, pirates from Bohelland, Avery, Algerian, Moroccan, Sallee, and Wahabee pirates, methods for repression of piracy, and Tripoli pirates reduced by Shovel.
Chapter 109

Section 1104 cards

What does the index entry for Sir Cloudesley Shovell say about his knowledge of latitude?
The index lists under Shovel, Sir Cloudesley, the entry 'ignorant of latitude, 642, 650.' It also records that his body was found (644-7), his burials (644-8), a murder of him (647), and a story of a curse on him (641, 645).
Chapter 110
How does the index describe John Nichols Tom's various assumed identities and end?
The index says Tom assumed the alias of Sir William Courtenay, was a pretended Earl of Devon (600-602), a pretended Messiah (606-611), a lunatic at large (603), shot Meares (608, 613), and was shot as a rioter (610). It also notes his characteristic vanity (593) and an expected resurrection (612).
Chapter 110
What does the index record about the women of Saltash?
Under Saltash, the index gives a page range of 663-669 for 'women of.' The same range of pages also appears under the Tamar river and Tavy river entries, and the Three Towns' History is listed at 663, indicating this section of the book treats the women of Saltash.
Chapter 110
What does the index say about Samuel Smiles and Self-Help in relation to Cornish subjects?
The index lists Smiles, Samuel, at pages 193, 194, 198 note, 205, and 363, and Self-Help at 363. It also lists Samuel Drew, M.A., the Self-Taught Cornishman at 363, and the steam blast invented and utilized by Gurney at 194-202.
Chapter 110

Section 1114 cards

What does the index record about Thomas Tregoss's religious activities?
The index lists Thomas Tregoss's conversion, his early life, and that he was imprisoned for preaching. It also records that he prays for pilchards, linking his ministry to the Cornish fishing industry. A curse on the Tregoss family is also noted, suggesting the family drew both devotion and misfortune.
Chapter 111
What does the index say about Edward John Trelawny's naval career and character?
The index notes Trelawny missed Trafalgar, served in Greece, and had a loose life. It records his books and a portrait of him, and describes his treatment of his wife and child. His character is summarized at several page references, suggesting a complex and controversial figure.
Chapter 111
What inventions and sacrifices are attributed to Henry Trengrouse?
Trengrouse is credited with inventing rockets, a lifeboat, and the cork jacket. The index notes his birth and education, his marriage, his death, and monetary sacrifices. It also records that he witnessed a wreck and was invited to Russia, tying his inventions to rescue at sea.
Chapter 111
What does the index record about Sir Robert Tresilian's legal and political role?
Tresilian is listed as Lord Chief Justice and as an adviser to Richard II. He was 'appealed' of treason and later appears in disguise. The index connects him to the reign's political conflicts, showing a judge whose career ended in accusation rather than honor.
Chapter 111

Section 1124 cards

What did the chapter say about the style and outstanding features of Anatole France's work?
The chapter says his work is illuminated with style, scholarship, and psychology, but its outstanding features are the lambent wit, gay mockery, and genial irony with which he touches every subject. The wit is never malicious, the mockery never derisive, and the irony never barbed. The chapter quotes his Garden of Epicurus describing his Irony as gentle and kindly, mocking neither love nor beauty.
Chapter 112
How does the chapter describe France's relationship to asceticism and humanity?
The chapter says France often shows divine humanity triumphing over mere asceticism, and with entire reverence. It describes him as an ascetic overflowing with humanity, and quotes the phrase calling him a pagan constantly haunted by the preoccupation of Christ. It notes he is in turn saintly and Rabelaisian, like Choulette in The Red Lily, yet without incongruity, and always the foe of superstition and hypocrisy.
Chapter 112
What honors and popularity figures does the chapter cite for Anatole France?
The chapter says The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881) was crowned by the French Academy, and that France was received into the Academy in 1896. It notes two of his books reached their hundred and tenth thousand, several reached their seventieth thousand, and the one a Frenchman called 'Monsieur France's most arid book' was in its fifty-eighth thousand. The chapter concedes popularity is perhaps a poor argument.
Chapter 112
What connection does the chapter draw between France, The Yellow Book, and the Bodley Head?
The chapter states that France's only contribution to an English periodical appeared in The Yellow Book, vol. v., April 1895, alongside the first important English appreciation of his work by the Hon. Maurice Baring. It says that for this reason it is peculiarly appropriate that the English edition of his works should be issued from the Bodley Head.
Chapter 112

Section 1134 cards

What does the Daily News review say about Browning's book on Napoleon's early life?
The Daily News praises Mr. Browning's work as valuable, produced with patience, labour, careful study, and excellent taste. The review states it will add materially to the literature on what it calls the most fascinating of human personalities. The book covers Napoleon's boyhood and youth, 1769-1793, and is illustrated with portraits and other images.
Chapter 113
According to the Times, what makes de Wertheimer's life of the Duke of Reichstadt authoritative?
The Times calls it a most careful and interesting work presenting the first complete and authoritative account of the life of this unfortunate Prince. The Westminster Gazette adds that the book is admirably produced, reinforced by many additional portraits, and is a solid contribution to history and a monument of patient, well-applied research. It is a second edition, translated from the German.
Chapter 113
What incident involving Napoleon, Taylor, and the Elector of Hesse is described in the note on Ralph Heathcote?
The note says Napoleon became persuaded that Taylor, the English minister at the Court of Hesse, was implicated in a plot to procure his assassination, and insisted on Taylor's dismissal. Taylor refused to be dismissed, and the incident at one time seemed likely to cost the Elector his throne. Heathcote served as first secretary to Taylor.
Chapter 113
What does the note say about the authorship and origin of The Diary of a Lady-in-Waiting?
The note states the book appeared anonymously in 1838, created an enormous sensation, and was fiercely criticised by Thackeray and in the Reviews of the time. It says there is no doubt the diary was founded on that of Lady Charlotte Bury, daughter of the 5th Duke of Argyll and Lady-in-Waiting to Caroline of Brunswick when Princess of Wales.
Chapter 113

Section 1143 cards

What did Weale discover and disentangle, and where did he publish archival records?
The chapter states Weale discovered Gerard David and disentangled his principal works from Memlinc's, with which they were then confused. Over a series of years he published in the "Beffroi," a magazine he issued himself, many important records from ancient archives that threw light on the origin and development of the early Netherlandish school.
Chapter 114
What new fact about Foppa's lifespan did the authors of his biography unearth?
The chapter says no complete Life of Vincenzo Foppa had ever been written, and the authors based their work on research in the archives of Milan, Pavia, Brescia, and Genoa and on study of all his known works. Among the new material, one of the most interesting facts brought to light was that Foppa lived twenty-three years longer than was formerly supposed.
Chapter 114
What did César Franck's influence produce, and who were his pupils and disciples?
The chapter says Franck was long ignored except as organist of Sainte-Clotilde in Paris but is now recognised as the legitimate successor of Bach and Beethoven. The Schola Cantorum, founded in Paris in 1896 by Guilmant, Bordes, and d'Indy, is the direct outcome of his influence. Disciples included Dukas, Chabrier, Fauré, and Ysäye; pupils included Benoît, Augusta Holmès, Chausson, Ropartz, and d'Indy.
Chapter 114

Section 1154 cards

What does the Morning Post say Fea's Monmouth biography does to Macaulay's pages?
The Morning Post calls Fea's volume 'singularly fascinating' and says it not only supplements but corrects the 'prejudiced though picturesque pages of Macaulay.' It adds that the book seems to make the reader personally acquainted with many characters involved in the conspiracies and amorous and political intrigues of the period.
Chapter 115
Who wrote the life of Sir Richard Granville, and what is his position?
The life of Sir Richard Granville, Baronet (1600-1659), titled 'The King's General in the West,' was written by Roger Granville, M.A., Sub-Dean of Exeter Cathedral. It includes illustrations, is demy 8vo, and is priced at 10s. 6d. net. The Westminster Gazette called it a distinctly interesting work appreciated by historical students and ordinary readers alike.
Chapter 115
What does the publisher's note say about Winifred Stephens's book on French novelists?
The note says the writer, who has lived much in France, is thoroughly acquainted with French life and the principal currents of French thought. The book is intended as a guide for English readers wanting to keep in touch with the best present-day French fiction, with special attention to the ecclesiastical, social, and intellectual problems of contemporary France and their influence on today's French novelists.
Chapter 115
What does the Daily Telegraph say about Byles's life of Robert Stephen Hawker?
The Daily Telegraph says that as soon as the volume is opened one finds oneself in the presence of a real original, a man of ability, genius and eccentricity, of whom one cannot know too much. It adds that no one will read this fascinating and charmingly produced book without thanking Mr. Byles and desiring to visit or revisit Morwenstow.
Chapter 115

Section 1164 cards

According to the publisher's note, who originally selected the name 'Dreadnought'?
The note states that the name was originally selected by Elizabeth, and explains why she chose it. It also describes the launch, how the ship under Drake fought against the Armada, and how her captain was knighted on the quarter-deck in the presence of the enemy. The name is then traced down to the present leviathan bearing it.
Chapter 116
What does the publisher's note say is told for the first time in Fraser's book?
The note claims the story of the 'Dreadnought' is told for the first time. It covers how the name was selected by Elizabeth and why she chose it, the launch, the ship's service under Drake against the Armada, and the captain's knighthood on the quarter-deck in the presence of the enemy.
Chapter 116
How does the note describe the scope of Fraser's 'Champions of the Fleet'?
The note says Mr. Fraser takes in the whole range of the Navy's story. The 'Dreadnought' is presented as but one of the 'champions' dealt with in the volume, which also includes sixteen full-page illustrations and some interesting reproductions.
Chapter 116
What is the stated subject of 'The Londons of the British Fleet'?
It is described as the story of ships bearing the name of Old Renown in naval annals, by Edward Fraser. The edition lists eight illustrations in colours and twenty in black and white, published by John Lane, The Bodley Head, Vigo Street, London.
Chapter 116

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All questions and answers

According to the preface, what event brought Cornwall into closer association with English thought and progress?

What effect does the author claim underground mining life has on mind and character?

Why does the author focus on lesser-known Cornish figures rather than the greatest ones?

What did the labourer at Lyme Regis tell Pengelly about headless fossil snakes?

How did Pengelly's father decide whether to go to sea?

What did Pengelly's shipmates think of the Spectator, and why?

What did Pengelly find in the Brixham cave's third and fourth beds?

What sequence of deposits did Kent's Cavern floor show, from top down?

What did Pengelly advise the scientific student to do?

How did Forster's conduct at Preston contrast with his force's position?

What did the Highlanders propose at Preston, and what did their leaders decide?

Who was captured at Preston, and how many prisoners were taken?

What was the Logan Rock, and what did Lieutenant Goldsmith do to it in 1824?

What did the Admiralty require of Goldsmith, and how was the cost handled?

Why did Goldsmith throw down the Logan Rock, according to the chapter?

What was the result of the Logan Rock's re-erection for Goldsmith?

What is uncertain about Hugh Peters's parentage and early life?

How does the chapter characterize the religious state of England after Henry VIII?

What advice does the chapter say would have made Mary a popular monarch?

How does the chapter describe the clergy of the Elizabethan and early Stuart Church?

What was the religious position of the bulk of the English people, per the chapter?

What does the chapter report about Hugh Peters' conduct in New England and after?

What political and religious system did the Independents advocate?

How did Pride's Purge alter the House of Commons?

What accusations were made about Peters and the King's execution?

What was Peters' role as a Triers member under Cromwell?

What did Hugh Peters admit about his role on the law-amending commission?

How did the Dutch use Peters in their peace negotiations with England?

What weaknesses of Peters does Lockart's letter from Dunkirk reveal?

How did Cornish wrestling differ from Devon wrestling?

What was the outcome of Polkinghorne's 1826 match with Abraham Cann?

What event inspired Henry Trengrouse to invent a rocket life-saving apparatus?

How did Trengrouse's rocket apparatus differ from Captain Manby's mortar?

What did Trengrouse sacrifice for his life-saving inventions, and how was he rewarded?

What other safety devices did Trengrouse invent besides the rocket apparatus?

How did the British government compensate Trengrouse for its rocket order?

What did Trengrouse say on his deathbed about his rocket apparatus?

What did the 1907 Board of Trade report say about lives saved by life-saving apparatus?

What errors did Mrs. Bray and Cyrus Redding make about the Ruddle ghost story?

Who actually wrote the 'Remarkable Passage of an Apparition,' and who proved it?

What did the boy say Dorothy Dingley's ghost did when they met?

Why did the parents and Rev. Samuel Williams suspect the boy's ghost story?

What two observations convinced Ruddle the apparition was not fear or fancy?

Who actually wrote the original Ruddle ghost narrative, and how did Defoe alter it?

Why does the chapter doubt that Dorothy Durant was the ghost?

What first drew young John Couch Adams to astronomy?

How did Adams's work on Uranus lead toward the discovery of Neptune?

Who first publicly linked Adams's name to the discovery of Neptune, and when?

What did Adams say, forty years later, he had actually wished for?

What honours did Adams refuse or decline?

How does the chapter describe Daniel Gumb's rock-cut dwelling near the Cheesewring?

What did the boy Edwards claim to see at the Tower?

What happened to Braddon after he reported the Essex affair?

How did the Crown handle the Rye House Plot and the association scheme?

What sentences did Braddon and Speke receive in April 1684 for trying to blame Essex's murder on the government?

What did Bomeny, Essex's valet, testify about the Earl's nails and the penknife?

What did the Lords' committee conclude about Essex's death, and how did Lady Essex and friends respond?

How does the author contrast Braddon's and Speke's motives regarding the Essex affair?

What happened to Thomasine's three husbands and her wealth?

What did Edmund Norway dream on the night of the murder, and what detail troubled him?

Why was Edmund Norway's dream about the house's position actually accurate?

What did the Lightfoot brothers claim was their intended target, and why was it disbelieved?

How did Sir William Lower's career and character end, according to the chapter?

What did the panicked Penzance residents initially believe about the men from the wrecked ship?

What second panic seized Penzance after learning the captives were Algerine pirates, and how was it handled?

According to Hals, what crime was Lady Killigrew accused of, and what was her fate?

What corrections does the author make to Hals's account of the Killigrew affair?

Who did the inquiry find had contrived the plot to seize the Spanish ship?

How did Hawkins and Kendal escape conviction at the first Penryn meeting?

What happened to Hawkins, Kendal, and Lady Killigrew after the truth came out?

How did John Ralfs spend his time and relate to people in Penzance?

What did Bignell discover about the scorpion-like creature on house-flies?

How did the marines deceive the rebel prisoners at Fort S. Julian?

What did Bignell achieve in entomology, especially regarding parasites?

How did Bignell attract male Oak-egger moths with a virgin female?

How did Bignell and his friend capture the Heliophobus hispidus moth on the cliff?

What did Mr. Bignell discover about the hyper-parasite and the aphis?

What does the author argue about how ichneumonidae provide for their young compared with humans?

What does the author conclude about the claimed ancient origins of the Call family?