John Davey Page

John Davey of Boswednack and His Cornish Rhyme.

By Morton Nance to the Royal Institution of Cornwall 23rd May 1922

In his 'History of St. Ives' published in 1892, Mr J. Hobson Mathews has a chapter on 'The Cornish Langauge at St. Ives'. This as regards St. Ives is almost a blank; its real value lying in two references to survivals of Cornish in the adjoining parish of Zennor.The first of these is a tradition that Andrew Stevens, of Trevegia, used to say to his son "Come here, you little kennack" and say 'wonnen, d, tri, pedar, pemp, etc' teaching him to count, and also that he was fond of the exclamation "scavel an gow". This is interesting chiefly as showing the persistence of a family tradition, for 'kennack', the literal meaning of which, "worm", is kept in 'Kennack Sands' famous for lug-worm bait, is hardly yet extinct as an endearment, though 'poor worm' or 'tender worm' are more general; 'scavel-an-gow' too is still a living expression and although the feminine form, 'pedar', four, is not found in later versions, I have met with four independent traditions of the Cornish numerals up to twenty in this year 1922, whereas Andrew Stevens (who doubtless knew far more Cornish than these poor relics) died in 1772, the year in which Dolly Pentreath first came to fame.The second of Mr Hobson Mathews' statements is so much beyond this, however, that most of his readers must have had difficulty in accepting it, for, he claims, that John Davey of Boswednack, in Zennor, still alive in 1890, not only 'knew the meaning of place-names around about' but also 'could converse on a few simple topics in the ancient language'. The word 'converse' was no doubt ill chosen, for had Mr Hobson Mathews, who knew some Cornish, met and 'conversed' with him, we should certainly have heard more of it, and actually he seems to have got this information about John Davey at second-hand while professor J. Westlake who quotes 'Davey, Zennor' as his authority for some words contributed by him to the English Dialect Dictionary and to whom it seems likely that we owe what is preserved of his Cornish, would certainly not have claimed to be able to converse with him in that language, even on the simplest of topics.

John Davey of Boswednack is not, however, forgotten at Zennor, any more than is his father, John Davey, at St. Just: and from what I have been able to learn at these and other places, and especially from members of the family, there seems to be no doubt at all that this remarkable old man, without being infallible on place-names, or being able to converse in the language, yet had a fairly extensive Cornish repertoire, inherited, along with a great taste for fiddling, a store of old tunes, a little library of calf-bound books, and an excellent memory, from his even more remarkable father, who, in addition to being a noted mathematician, was probably better acquainted with Cornish than any contemporary Cornishman.

Had not the whole history of the language prepared us for such neglect, it would have seemed far less credible that as recently as 1891, the year of his death, John Davey's Cornish, like that of Dolly Pentreath or William Bodener a century earlier, was allowed to perish unrecorded, than that at so late a date a man still lived who could recite some traditional Cornish. Less astonishing, but even more sad, is that not one word of all his store is known to his descendants today, although it is well remembered that he possessed it.

Amongst the books left to John Davey by his father was a volume of Pryce's Archaeologia Cornu-Britannica, and although the volume has disappeared, with any notes that it may have contained, a copy of Pryce's 'modern' version of the Lord's Prayer, in his father's beautiful 'copper-plate' script is preserved. This might well lead to the suspicion that the Cornish recited by the Daveys was merely Pryce committed to memory; but that some, at least, of it was traditional is fortunately proved by the one specimen of his recitations, learned by him, as he said. from his father, that has survived:-

A grankan, a grankan,A mean o gowaz o vean:Ondez parc an venton,Dub trelowza vean.Far Penzans a Maragow,Githack mackwee,A githack macrow,A mac trelowza varrack.......The punctuation of this seems to show that it had some meaning for the writer: but Mr Hobson Mathews, who, fortunately, thought it at least worth printing, considered it to be a 'mere jumble of place names'. It is certainly possible to pick out 'Crankan', 'Park an Venton', 'Penzance', 'Market Jew', to say nothing of the less familiar but likely-seeming 'Trelowza Vean' and 'Trelowza Varrack' and to compare with it we have the 'Cornish Cantata':-..."As Lap-yeor Tom from Ball-a-Noon did hie,He saw Shalal-a-Shackets passing by:Tom did rejoice, and as he walked along,Sweet as a Jaypie - sung a Cornish song.Vel-an-drakya, Cracka Cadna,Truzemenhall Chun Crowzanwrah." etcSo it was natural enough that, on his suggestion, John Davey's rhyme should since have been accepted as a 'jumble of place names'.Coming again however, upon this jingle after an unterval largely spent in picking up Cornish from place-names and dialect survivals, and thus with some experience of the ways in which Cornish words are apt to break down when used by English speakers, its queer words began to form themselves into sentences. spelt not by book but by ear, and its 'place-names' to drop out, until I had a little folk-rhyme in popular Cornish of the latest period, and all about a place called Crankan. "Crankan Vean" is found as an old field-name at Zennor, but it seems fairly certain that this 'Little Crankan' took its name from the farm at Crankan in Gulval, which, as we shall see, was something of a bye-ord for rocky barrenness; and internal evidence, taken with the suggestive fact that an earlier John Davey of Zennor married Elizabeth Reed of Gulval, in 1714, making it fairly certain that in Gulval this rhyme had its birth.

This is what I make of it:-

A Grankan, a Grankan,Em me^n a-gawes saw bian,Hu^nj es Park an Venton,A de^f try lous a ve^n:For' Pensans ha Marghaj-Yow,Yu ithek moy cri, hag ithek moy crow,Ha ma^k try lous a varghak.

In English:-............O Crankan, O Crankan,On the rock thou hast but little,Further than the well-field,That will grow three sprouts to each stone:The Penzance and Market Jew road,Is vastly more green, and vastly more fresh,And will nourish three sprouts for each horseman.

The only difficulty, apart from some new Cornish words, lay in deciding the best of two or three possible meanings for the second line. In this, however, 'a mean' I think is best made a contraction of 'en me^n', with the 'n' dropped, as sometimes happens. 'Ondez' is clearly 'ond es' of which the first word can hardly be anything but Welsh 'hwnt', beyond, other. This in Cornish should be hu^ns, hu^nj, and Devoran has its Park Huns, 'Yonder Field': Nicholas Boson, who once uses the word Cornish, writes it 'hunt', however, 'hunt tho canz bloath', 'more than a hundred years old', where the position before the 'dh' of dho has perhaps affected it. 'Mackwee' is, I think, more likley to be 'moy cri' (usually criv). Welsh cri, than moy gwdr, Welsh gwyr, with similar meaning. Crow is a new Cornish word, but obviously the same as Welsh 'croew', fresh, and 'lous' is, I believe, another: Welsh llawd, a shoot, although trellos is quite possible as an irregular triple form of losowen, a plant.Late in this rhyme is, the mutations are well observed, except that saw requires no mutation of the following 'b' to 'v', as in 'gowaz o vean' and in this respect is much above the average of Late Cornish writing.

For the matter of the rhyme, it is like the old taunt against the grassless parish 'where the cow ate bell-rope'; or the verses of Billy Foss of Sancreed, on the lean pastures of Boslow:-'No grass for the flocks, But a carn of dry rocks, Which afforded a horrible sight;If you chance go that way, You must do so by day, For you'd smash out your brains in the night!

The very name of Crankan, unless it is another of our Cornish philologist-traps, should mean "Castle of Misery", 'car anken', Welsh 'caer angen', castle of destitution, the particular misery referred to being a heavy portion of Adam's curse:-"Spern ha spedhes ow-tevy,"Hedre vy may fo ANKEN" O.M. 275-6."Thornes and brambles a-growing, while thou mayest exist that there may be misery." Generations of hard work have done much for Crankan since Cornish was spoken there, and many tons of its rocks have gone to form its hedges; but it is still said in jest that its fields have "more stones than grass" or "two lace of rocks to three lace of land." "Em me^n a-gawes saw bian" is still true of the Well Field that when this was its best field one less agile than a "Zennor Goat" might well have been able to cross the others dryshod in the dew by leaping from one granite outcrop to another. This rockiness is perhaps most marked in the roofless cot known as "The Giant's House" the back wall of which is formed of one enormous rock.

Except for "Park Noweth";"new field", "Abalabbers," a bar' alebba; "on the hither side", and "Senjes Croft" where 'senjas'; "held" is the only obvious meaning, Crankan's field names are now English, and the "Park an Venton" of the rhyme is, as we ahve seen, "The Well Field". This opens out of the town-place, and, though very rocky in parts, is still reckoned one of the best fields. Sixty years ago it still had a well, marked now only by a slight depression where the grass grows a little greener, for another well out in the lane and a pump close to the house have taken its place. Another field, once called in Cornish "For' Eglos" is the "Churchway", named after the path that led away from rocky Crankan and Noongalles, an u^n gales, the hard down, to the rich slopes above Gulval Church, where, looking down on the Penzance and Marazion road, with a vision cleared of modern obstructions by the help of the well-known print of this view in 1807, we can imagine the old rhyme as having come into the mind of its originator. This 1807 print, even, is a little modern for us, for it shows what might almost be the famous Trewinnard coach, slowly working its way between the 'sandy banks', where all local corn was winnowed with the 'croder croghen', to landwards; we must hark back still further, to a time when West Cornwall had no carts or coaches, when pack-horse tracks and wide 'green lanes', made by use alone, were the only roads to compare with this wide, gleaming, sandy track, visible from far up the Gulval slopes, and proverbially the most arid stretch of ground in the parish - save poor abused Crankan!

There can be no doubt, after the evidence of this rhyme, of what there was to lose by neglecting John Davey. This neglect the St. Ives Old Cornwall Society intends to repair, at least by commemorating his knowledge of Cornish in an inscription at Zennor, for which an appropriate text might be taken from Ecclesiastes,ix.,16; "Dispesies yu skians de^n boghojak, na nag yu e^ erriow golsowes." If John Davey's monument should be as insignificant beside that great one of Dolly Pentreath at Paul as his fame besides hers, we may at least get from him, more Cornish than Daines Barrington, or anyone else, took down from Dolly. On the strength of this jingle alone, he may be said to have increased our knowledge of the language, and for the rest we can but echo Boson's phrase, 'trueth yu ^v dho vo^s kelles', "'tis pity it should be lost".

Notes:

<1> John Davey, senior, born at Boswednack, 1770, died at St. Just 1844, Bottrell, in his 'Traditions', Series III., p83, pays tribute to the work ne by him as schoolmaster at St. Just. John Davey, junior, born at St Just 1812, died at Boswednack 1891. He was a farmer, but himself kept school for a time at Zennor.

<2> Verses by Edward Collins Giddy: printed at Davies Gilbert's private press, Eastbourne, c. 1820-8. Although a jest, its place-names are not without interest: e.g. " Vel-an-drakya" preserves an older sound of 'melyn droghye'' or 'melin drukkia, fulling or tucking mill, than the present Vellan - 'druchar' or 'druchsia'. Lhuyd's trukkiar, a fuller, gives the Cornish verb as trukkia, but 'troghia', Welsh trochi, would be more correct historically.

<3> Bottrell, "Traditions, Series III" p. 122. William Foss, the rhymester, as well as a writer of epitaphs, was a skilled carver of tombstones in the Cornish tradition of slate-craft, as many West Penwith churchyards testify.

<4> The " Castle Field" is named after a fortified British village (resembling that of Chysauster in the same district) which was presumably the original 'car anken'. Some granite querns have been found there but it has not yet been surveyed or excavated.

<5> This, latterly known as a 'crowdy crawn' which fairly represents the sound, was a sieve-rind covered with a sheepskin, literally 'skin-sieve', used not only in winnowing, but as a receptacle for odds and ends, and as a tambourine.

Bingley Tech. 1966 - are YOU there?

I became interested in motorcycles in 1964 when a school chum, John Blades (fourth from left on back row) brought a copy of Motorcycle Mechanics to class. Had a Vincent-Norton on the front cover. I bought my first bike at 15 years old. Being legal at 16 I went through Royal Enfields (a 250 and a 700 while still 16) then BSA's A10 and a A65 Spitfire IV, BMW R69S, Vincents 1949 Black Shadow and a 1952 Rapide, and ended up with a Harley-Davidson at the age of 22. I have stayed with that marque ever since. Here are some of them.

1958 Panhead Ex South African police bike. I bought it in 1972. This is TT Week Isle of Man 1974

1942 WL45" Restored to civilian spec. 1974

My NEW 1975 FLH ElectraGlide

1976 FX1200 bought new customised that winter. Photo taken 1977 in Holland.

 Photo taken 1979 outside my first little corner shop. 1976 FLH left to rot in friends back garden. Rebuilt with polished cases etc etc etc.

1978 Ex Saudi Arabian Police bike. Bought 1980. Total wreck complete with dead lizard in tranny.

Fully polished engine / trans etc. Totally rebuild front to back. Went away from the slim chopper line then popular. (See bikes in back of photo) Guy sat on it in this 1982 photo is Willie G Davidson grandson of a H-D founder and head of design at H-D. We'd met the previous evening over a whisky or two and I'd shown him photos. He said he would like to see it. I drive 100 miles home, took out the bike next morning and rode 100 miles back. He liked it. I swopped the Bates headlight for a 7" Duo-Glide unit and sent on photos later. 2 years later I got a fax from Bill saying there was to be a new model announced soon. I would like it. No more info. 3 weeks later the Softail Heritage was shown by the factory. You may notice some similarities. By that time I was an official Harley-Davidson dealer.

The Harley Shop Ltd   Harley House Whitwood Castleford Yorkshire.

The Harley Shop Road Crew Run from York to Cheltenham 1991. 280 H-D's took part with  Harley Shop H.O.G. chairman, Willie G. Davidson grandson of one of the founders and V.P. Harley-Davidson Design, and me.

THE SHOP

1983  1984

1991

The tuning side was all based around a Dynojet computer dynamometer and we ran articles on tuning for Heavy Duty Magazine, Supertwins and AmericanV

1994

 Turbo-Charging an Evo BigTwin

The vintage side had a display set up as in a 1927 Harley-Davidson dealership with bikes from 1917, 1919, 1922, 1926 and two 1928's. Plus engines and gearboxes from 1914 to 1928 and shelves of vintage parts and accessories, many still in original boxes.

1914 single    1917 Twin

1922 Twin

Extra Power, & Thanks To.....

OUR CUSTOMERS

It was always one big PARTY... the shop is now closed and I am 'retired'.

My Present Ride.

1996 Road King.

Dieub ha par en o dellezegezh hag o gwirioł eo ganet an holl dud. Poell ha skiant zo dezho ha dleout a reont bevań an eil gant egile en ur spered a genvreudeuriezh. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

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