In the same reign, but somewhat later, a report on England, addressed to Philip II. of Spain by an Italian agent, speaks thus of Cornwall: “Li hauitanti sono del tutto differenti _di parlare_, di costume et di leggi alli Inglesi; usano le leggi imperiali cosi como fa ancola li Walsche loro vicini; quali sono in prospettiva alli Irlanda et sono similmente tenuti la maggior parte Cattolici.” However, since the agent insists that the Severn divides Cornwall from England, he can hardly have known much about the country. The report occurs among a number of Spanish state papers in Add. MS. 28,420, in the British Museum.
In Carew’s _Survey of Cornwall_, written about 1600, we read, however, that the language had been driven into the uttermost parts of the Duchy, and that very few were ignorant of English, though many affected to know only their own tongue. It seems, however, from what he says further on, that the _guaries_, or miracle plays, were then commonly acted in Cornish, and that the people flocked to them in large numbers, and evidently understood them. Carew adds that the principal love and knowledge of the language died with one “Dr. Kennall, the civilian,” probably John Kennall, D.C.L., Archdeacon of Oxford. Carew gives the numerals and a few other specimens of the language.
In a survey of Cornwall, by John Norden, entitled _Speculum Magnæ Britanniæ_, _pars Cornwall_, addressed to James I., the following account of the language is given.
“The Cornish people for the moste parte are descended of British stocke, though muche mixed since with the Saxon and Norman bloude, but untill of late years retayned the British speache uncorrupted as theirs of Wales is. For the South Wales man understandeth not perfectly the North Wales man, and the North Wales man little of the Cornish, but the South Wales man much. The pronunciation of the tongue differs in all, but the Cornish is far the easier to be pronounced.” Here he goes on to compare the sound of it with the Welsh, to the disadvantage of the latter. . . . “But of late the Cornishmen have much conformed themselves to the use of the English tongue, and their English is equal to the best, especially in the Eastern partes; even from Truro eastward is in a manner wholly Englishe. In the west parte of the county, as in the Hundreds of Penwith and Kerrier, the Cornishe tongue is mostly in use, and yet it is to be marvelled that though husband and wife, parents and children, master and servauntes, doe mutually communicate in their native language, yet there is none of them but in manner is able to converse with a stranger in the English tongue, unless it be some obscure persons that seldom converse with the better sort.”