CORNWALL small village with a ferry across the Hel to Passage House ; probably there was once a ford here, but the mud and sand would render such passage difficult. It is clearly wrong to speak of the Hel ford River, as people do ; the river is, of course, the Hel or Hayle. It is stated that pearls have been found here. Defoe, nearly two centuries ago, speaks of Helford as " a small but good harbour, where many times the tin-ships go in to load for London " ; and he tells the story of one of these tin-ships, with only one man and two boys aboard, being driven out of the port and as far as the Isle of Wight during the great tempest of November, 1703. They were saved by the courage and skill of one of the boys, who remembered a creek on the island into which he ran the vessel. This same word hel undoubtedly goes to form the name of HELSTON, though, by the time of the Conquest, the Saxons had corrupted that name to Henlistone. Helston itself is situated on the Cober. Of course the popular interpre- tation of the name is Hell-stone, with an appropriate legend ; Hunt makes an almost equally fanciful guess at Ella's town. The town received a charter from Coeur-de-Lion, or some say from John, together with many later charters from other sovereigns ; and it returned members to Parliament till the Re- form Bill. It was also a stannary town. Report says that vessels could at one time sail up to its walls. Defoe spoke of it as " large 128
