06/4/15

Thursday Thoughts: Liskeard, my hometown!

So looking forward to visiting my native Cornwall with my daughter Sarah in July on a book tour with my historical novel The Miner & the Viscount. I was born and brought up in Liskeard so it will be a special treat to give a talk in the Liskeard Book Shop.

Liskeard Book Shop

Liskeard Book Shop

The shop is in Barras Street in the heart of the town. This handsome building houses the Liberal Club. My father was the president when I was a boy. I remember watching him play billiards.

I went to kindergarten at Miss Rapson’s school behind this building. Miss Rapson and Miss Wilkes were very strict but taught us to spell and add and subtract.

Liskeard was created a Royal Borough in 1240 so it had the privilege of having two Members of Parliament. And only 32 voters at the time of my story. Read how that worked in Chapter 3.

05/8/15

Thursday Thoughts: Stellar Review

Another heart warming review. This one from an old school friend with high standards of writing, and indeed scholarship:

“I’ve spent most of the last few days reading ‘The Miner and the Viscount’, here in Normandy looking out on the sea and across to Jersey.

“It is a splendid read.  A tour de force.  I can only guess at the hours of writing.

“The  Piran story starts it off with a real bang, and I found everything thereafter deeply absorbing and believable as a portrait of life in that place and at that time.  I especially enjoyed the details of mining and of community festivities, your pictures of justice and authority, the class society and position of women, the difficulties of travel, and much else, convincing and informative.  And at the end, while the goodies win and the baddie gets his come-uppance, and there are prospects of huge social and economic improvements soon to come, private tragedy reminds us that for most people life was to remain a struggle, full of pain.  An absorbing read.

“Congratulations.”

http://wp.me/p4LySx-bq

04/30/15

Thursday Thoughts: Cornish Language Comeback

From “The Miner & the Viscount” Chapter 1

“He prayed, without a book for sustenance and forgiveness. Ro dhyn ni hedhyw agan bara pub-dydhyek; ha gav dhyn agan kendonow kepar dell evyn ni ynwedh dh’agan kendonoryon. They resented the English church that was whittling away at their own language. A hundred years ago their forebears had rebelled against the new prayer book of the established church that made them say it differently: Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

Readers have asked about the strange looking dialog that they see in my book from time to time, such as this prayer from Preacher Perry at Gwennap Pit. The language is Kernewek, the ancient Celtic tongue that once was the community language in Cornwall. The last “monolingual” speaker was Dolly Pentreath, a fish seller in Mousehole, who died in 1777.

Cornish has enjoyed a revival sparked largely by the Cornish Gorsedh, and especially since Europe last spring recognized the Cornish as a distinct ethnic group. In 1967 the Gorsedh joined with the Federation Old Cornwall Societies to create the Cornish Language Board, Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek, charged with encouraging teaching and publishing in the language. They stressed developing a standard system of spelling and pronunciation, Kernewek Kemmen.

Grand Bard Maureen Fuller leading Gorsedh procession

Grand Bard Maureen Fuller leading Gorsedh procession

Maureen Fuller, Grand Bard of Cornwall and a board member of Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek, was kind enough to provide the translations for my book. They added greatly to the colorfulness and authenticity of the dialog.

www.gorsethkernow.org.uk

http://www.kesva.org

04/16/15

Thursday Thoughts: Natural Amphitheater

The foreboding opening scene of The Miner and the Viscount is set in a magnificent natural amphitheater, Gwennap Pit, just southeast of Redruth. At the time the story opens, and into the early 19th century, Gwennap parish incorporated the great Poldice mine and was dubbed the “richest square mile in the Old World”. Stannary Rolls record sales of tin back in the 14th century. The intensive felling of trees for charcoal to smelt the ore has left a stark moorland landscape. Today Gwennap forms part of the Cornish Mining World Heritage Site.

Gwennap Pit

Gwennap Pit

 

Gwennap Pit may have been formed by the collapse of a working mine. Mary Fryer is from Illogan in Cornwall, and she told me she had played in the Pit as a girl. Mary is a Tangye and her family is connected to mining. Her great great grandfather Sir Richard Trevithick Tangye manufactured hydraulic pumps used to drain the mines.  He was named after the great Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick.

My wife Penny and I went to Gwennap Pit during our research visit to Cornwall in 2012. I stood at the rim opposite her some 200 feet away and we conversed in normal speaking voices.  She said, “I can hear and understand every single word you say.”

I whispered to myself, “First time in years.” She shouted back, “I heard that!”

Gwennap Pit’s acoustic properties made it a marvelous place for meetings. John Wesley visited Cornwall 32 times and preached at the Pit many times. He wrote in his Journal of preaching there to  “two and thirty thousand souls.” Read Chapter 68 for a description of one of John Wesley’s great sermons, when he charged the gentry to pay heed to those in great need.

Gwennap was owned at one time by the Williams family of Scorrier House, respected Cornish mine operators, who gave it to the Methodist Church in 1978. The famous Lt. Col. J.H. Williams was a descendant who was born in St. Just. He served in World War II with the British Fourteenth Army in what was then known as Burma. He was skilled in training elephants and played a major logistical role in the campaign.  After the war he joined a teak company. I remember when I was a boy at Clifton reading his wonderful book “Elephant Bill” about his experiences.

Researching an historical novel turns up so many connections!

 

04/9/15

Thursday Thoughts: China Clay

Charleston Harbour, Cornwall

Charlestown Harbour, Cornwall

This is Charlestown Harbour, near St Austell in Cornwall. It was planned by the great engineer John Smeaton, who also designed the Eddystone Lighthouse. Readers of The Miner & the Viscount met him as the innovator of improvements in steam engines and water wheels for the hard rock mines.

Smeaton was helped by William Cookworthy, a Quaker and a pharmacist, who developed hydraulic lime, an essential ingredient in building the lighthouse.

The port was built to export copper from the nearby mines of Crinnis Hill, South Polmear and United Mines, Holmbush. However, it later became an important port for the export of China Clay.

William Cookworthy again played an important part. He developed a process for making china clay and built a factory to produce porcelain. One of his early backers was Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc (later the first Baron Camelford). It was on his land that deposits of saponaceous clay were found.

When I visited Boconnoc for research on my book, the present owner, Anthony Fortescue (whose family married into the Pitts), told me he had managed the family’s china clay pit when he was a young man.

Thanks to www.facebook.com/KernowPhotos for this photo and some of these notes.

04/2/15

Thursday Thoughts: Mystery unveiled at Lanhydrock

AN ANCIENT book has been discovered at Lanhydrock that helped Henry VIII to build his case against the Pope and annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, first of his six wives.

We can connect threads here. As readers of The Miner & the Viscount know, Lanhydrock is the great house that is the home of my fictitious villains, the Trenances. Like Lanhydrock House and churchmany Cornish estates, there is a church right by the house. Why? Because it was originally a priory. When Henry VIII brought about the Dissolution of the Monasteries (the greatest real estate scam in history) many priories plundered from the church were sold to wealthy laymen.

The book (dated 1495) is a summary of works by philosopher and theologian William of Ockham who was a major figure in medieval intellectual and political thought. Its contents help explain the persuasiveness of the arguments Henry VIII’s advisers made against the Pope.

The book has been at Lanhydrock for many years, but what has just been discovered is its direct connection to the royal library at Westminster Palace. There is an inventory number inside which corresponds to the inventory prepared in 1542 for Henry VIII’s chief library.

To help  gather evidence to support an annulment to Henry VIII’s his marriage, his agents scoured the country for texts such as Ockham’s which questioned the authority of the Pope and argued for the independence of the monarch. The volume at Lanhydrock contains marginal notes and marks which were made by Henry VIII’s secretarial staff to draw his attention to relevant passages.

So was the Reformation at its root motivated to sweep corruption from the Roman Catholic Church? Or was it Henry’s cover story for schemes truly driven by sex and money? We know he wanted to get rid of his Spanish queen so that he could marry the lusty Anne Boleyn. He also created the opportunity to seize the property of the Church of Rome.

With Paul Holden at Lanhydrock in the Long Gallery

Richard Hoskin with Paul Holden at Lanhydrock in the Long Gallery

Lanhydrock is now in the National Trust. Paul Holden, house and collections manager, said: “To have such an interesting book in the collection is fascinating in itself but to find out that it was once owned by Henry VIII, and played a part in a pivotal moment in British history, is very exciting.

“It’s thrilling to discover that the book at Lanhydrock is from the Royal library. The book is important not only for its provenance but for the notes entered in it by Henry VIII’s advisers and no doubt intended for him to see. They draw attention to precisely the sort of issues that were so relevant to the King’s policies in the years leading up to the break with Rome.”

On a personal note, I owe much to Paul for the expert information he provided me about Lanhydrock and the Robartes family. He added much to the richness of my book.

08/28/14

Thomas Newcomen

I am pleased to welcome a guest blogger, Susan W. Howard, now of San Jose, CA., and a descendant of the illustrious Hornblower family of Cornwall. This link will take you to the biography of Joseph Hornblower  http://penwood.famroots.org/joseph_hornblower.htm

Susan gave a talk about her researches at the Cornish Gathering in Milwaukee. She has written this brief portrait of Thomas Newcomen, who is credited with being the inventor of the atmospheric steam engine, which would “do the work of five horses.” One was built at the Wheal Vor mine as early as 1710 and by the time my story opens in 1760 as many as 70 were at work in Cornwall. The engine worked by injecting cold water into the steam cylinder to create a vacuum. The later designs of the Scotsman James Watt and the great Cornishman Richard Trevithick used the energy of expanding steam.

              The Newcomen Engine

The Newcomen Engine

Thomas Newcomen, inventor of the atmospheric steam engine, was a modest and devoutly religious man who left behind few records of his life. Some eighteenth century scientists such as Royal Society member John Desaguliers had difficulty in giving Newcomen credit for his invention. Desaguliers wrote that the engine that began pumping water from the mines at Coneygree colliery near Dudley Castle in Staffordshire in 1712 came about “very luckily by accident.” Newcomen in fact did possess the intellectual capacity and practical experience to build the engine. He relied upon his close-knit circle of fellow Baptists to supply help and needed expertise. Among them were John Calley, Humphrey Potter, and Joseph Hornblower, who built Newcomen engines in Cornwall. Newcomen may have begun building an engine at Wheal Vor in Cornwall as early as 1710; the Royal Cornwall Museum gives him credit for a machine built there in 1716.

Thomas Newcomen was born in Dartmouth, Devon in 1664. He became an ironmonger and while in his early twenties he visited mining regions in the West Midlands and Cornwall to sell and to manufacture metal tools and small household items. No record of an apprenticeship survives, but bills for ironmongery and purchases of bulk iron have been found. Letters written by his contemporaries do contain references to Newcomen and the steam engine. Two of Newcomen’s own letters have survived, and as far as can be discovered, no portrait of him was made. Apparently he began experimenting with steam engines in the mid-1690s. The extent that the ideas of other inventors or scientists influenced his work is a matter of conjecture. Inventor Thomas Savery had already been granted a patent for a “fire engine,” so Newcomen joined in a partnership with him to build an engine suitable for pumping water from the mines. Eventually more than 2,000 atmospheric steam engines were built. Newcomen was also a lay preacher, a trustee of the Netherton Baptist chapel (near Dudley) and an Overseer of the Poor. After his death in 1729 at the London home of fellow Baptist Edward Wallin, Newcomen was buried in Bunhill Fields, a nonconformist cemetery in London; the location of his gravesite, like so many of the details of his life, remains unknown.

Note: Desaguliers quote from L.T.C. Rolt and J. S. Allen, The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen, (Landmark Publishing, Ashbourne, Derbershire, 1997) 46.

08/15/14

Cornish Genealogy

I was delighted to be a speaker in mid-August at the 2014 International Gathering of the Cornish American Heritage Society. My topic, The Cornish Chronicle, tells the story of my native shire drawn from my historical novel The Miner & the Viscount.

 A major purpose of the Cornish American Heritage Society is to help members track their ancestry and find out about their own family history. See www.cousinjack.org

Tracing family roots is a particular fascination for the Cornish people. We are, naturally, special. We are Celtic, a unique race with our own language, spiritual connections, culture, traditions, and character. Cornwall itself is remote, self-contained, with scenery that ranges from picturesque towns and villages, fields and woods to rugged moors and rocky cliffs. Perhaps our isolation instills our character. We Cornish are sturdily independent; some even say we are stubborn.

Why are we so fascinated with our antecedents? Perhaps it is because of the eternal questions we ask ourselves. What is the purpose of our existence? Why were we put upon this earth? What hereditary characteristics or abilities make us the way we are? What places do we came from, and what communities are we part of? Perhaps we validate ourselves by knowing about our origins. There are some excellent resources to aid our search. www.ancestry.com is an extensive general source. For the Cornish in particular, the Cornish Global Migration Programme is a treasure trove. It is based in Murdoch House in Redruth. It was founded by our family friend,Dr. F. L. Harris, and ably directed for many years by Moira Tangy (cousin of my friend Mary Tangye Fryer). Its current director, Mike Kiernan, is speaking to the International Gathering. Find out more at www.murdochhouse.org/CGMP

Murdoch House by the way was the first house in Britain to be lit by gas, another example of Cornish inventiveness.

For those of you who would like professional help in tracing your Cornish roots, try Rachael Eustice at http://www.cornish-cousins.com in Penzance. If you are interested in the great emigration to Australia take a look at the Heraldry and Genealogy Society of Canberra at www.hagsoc.org.au/

You will discover many, many resources as you follow the trails that most interest you. You might also want to look at my essay, entitled “ancestry.com,” which I’ve posted on this website under the Meet the Author tab.

 

 

 

07/24/14

Try the first chapter!

My new book is turning out to be a great adventure. So thrilling for an author! Readers around the world tell me they find The Miner and the Viscount really interesting, a great story filled with fascinating characters, a page turner, as one reader put it.

Of course, I want everyone to read it. But you probably want to judge the book for yourself. Here’s my offer:

Sign up for my Newsletter and I will send you the first chapter of The Miner and the Viscount.  It’s an easy way to be introduced to the characters and plot of my book. If you like it and decide to buy a copy, you can easily do so right on my website.  If you decide to pass, no problem. But by getting my newsletter, I’m hoping you will soon change your mind and come around to purchasing a copy.

The Newsletter, by the way, is intended to share information and answer questions from readers wanting to know more of the background of the story, Cornwall itself, and the exhilarations (and travails) that went into writing the book.

Here’s the link to the newsletter/free chapter sign-up: http://eepurl.com/XMEor Be sure to check the box indicating you’d like me to send you the chapter.

Many thanks!

 

 

 

07/16/14

What or Who is a Viscount?

Anyone growing up in the U.K. would likely know the answer, but our American cousins might be unfamiliar with the term. As explained in my talk, The Cornish Chronicle, British peerage had a series of heriditary titles in masculine and feminine form, of which Viscount was one, as shown here:

MASCULINE FEMININE
Duke Duchess
Marquess Marchioness
Earl Countess
Viscount Viscountess
Baron Baroness

The peerage hierarchy of aristocracy actually predated the Norman Conquest of 1066. Simply stated, it was a system that described the ranks of nobles owing fealty to the king.  In return for swearing loyalty and promising troops when required, the barons received land (manors) and privileges from the king. Over time the roles have become more ceremonial and less hereditary. But the privileges were much sought after and the wealthy would trade cash for “honours”. Today Life Peers are created with the right to sit in the House of Lords without being able to pass on their titles to their heirs.

My fictional villain Sir James Trenance inherited upon the death of his father the barony that the family had previously purchased. Not content with this he also purchased an Irish Viscountcy, but got into trouble with the king when he was slow in paying for it.

In Chapter 32, you will find this exchange when Sir James informs his wife that he has come into a Viscountcy: 

 “You have been raised to a viscountcy? How did that come about? Will a place come with it? Will there be emoluments?”

“More likely more damn expense,” he replied. “All I have to do is support the king’s friends in the election, make sure they’re elected in some of these boroughs as well as the county. Made me a viscount. Cost me a pretty penny though, ten thousand pounds. Need new robes too, and the old coronet won’t do, need one with eighteen silver balls. Suppose you’ll need one too, now that you’re a viscountess. Worth it, though, should show these Cornish gentry how to make real money.”  

The English aristocracy were sticklers for pomp and circumstance, ritual and costume – which they valued as markers of rank and importance. Peers enjoyed the privilege of attending the coronation of a new monarch, when ceremonial robes and coronets would be worn. Shown here is a typical viscount coronet, featuring the desired 18 silver balls.