CHAPTER VIII.
CAMELFORD
A rotten borough—Without a church or chapel-of-ease—History of the borough—Contest between the Earl of Darlington and Lord Yarmouth—Brown Willy and Rough Tor—Helborough—S. Itha—Slaughter Bridge—King Arthur—The reason for the creation of the Arthur myth—Geoffrey of Monmouth—The truth about King Arthur—The story of his birth—Damelioc and Tintagel—How it is that he appears in so many places—King Arthur's Hall—The remains of Tintagel—The Cornish chough—Crowdy Marsh—Brown Willy and the beehive cottages on it—Fernworthy—Lord Camelford—His story—Penvose—S. Tudy—Slate monuments—Basil—S. Kew—The Carminows—Helland—A telegram.
THAT this little town of a single street should have been a borough and have returned two members to Parliament is a surprise. It is a further surprise to find that it is a town without a church, and that no rector of Lanteglos, two miles distant, should have deemed it a scandal to leave it without even a chapel-of-ease is the greatest surprise of all.
Camelford was invested with the dignity of a borough in 1547, when it was under the control of the Roscarrock family. From them it passed to the Manatons living at Kilworthy, near Tavistock. Then it fell into the hands of an attorney named Phillipps. He parted with his interest to the Duke
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