' MARAZION.

In 1471, John, the 13th earl of Oxford, an adherent to Henry VI., having fled from the battle of Barnet Heath, sailed from Wales to the Mount with some soldiers, and by artifice gained possession in the name of Henry VI. Edward IV. immediately ordered Sir John Arundell of Trerice, the sheriff, to besiege him, but Arundell and some of his followers were killed in the attempt. Edward then appointed John Fortescue, Esq., sheriff, who also made several unsuccessful attempts to take the castle. At length the earl and his followers on the promise of a free pardon yielded up the fortress.

In 1646, Colonel Hammond and the Parliamentary forces took the Mount after an honorable defence by Sir Francis Basset, its governor. About 1660, the Basset family having suffered much in their property during the civil war, sold the Mount to Sir John St. Aubyn.11 Six Sir John St. Aubyns successively have since been its proprietors - the last being the grandfather of Mr. John St. Aubyn one of the members of parliament for West Cornwall, who has occasionally resided there. Marazion, the nearest place to the Mount, sent two members to parliament in the time of Henry II,, but on the dissolution of the Priory of the Mount, it ceased to do so because it could not conveniently pay their wages, as appears by the Parliamentary Rolls in the Tower of London. "About 1513, this town was plundered and burnt by some armed men who landed there from a fleet of thirty French ships of war." Its charter of incorporation is older than that of Penzance and St. Ives, and bears date 13th June, 1595. Here an excellent school-house with a dwelling for the master was erected and endowed in 1851 to the memory of Sir Christopher Gole, R.N., K.C.B., by his widow, Lady Mary Cole. Sir Christopher was a native of Marazion, and a member of parliament for Glamorganshire. " He acquired the highest military reputation by his capture of Banda in the East Indies, with a force several times less numerous than the garrison which he overcame." Through the exertions of his nephew Mr. John Griffith Cole, who led the way by a subscription of £500, which he afterwards considerably increased, and to which Miss James added a thousand guineas, the handsome Chapel-of-ease in Marazion was erected, and consecrated on the 24th of June, 1861. The mother Church of St. Hilary after its destruction by fire, as already mentioned, had been rebuilt a few years before, to which the Rev. Thomas Pascoe, the vicar, contributed five or six hundred pounds. This parish, which includes both Marazion and the Mount may have possessed the earliest church in Great Britain. See p. 59. See also p. 13. The preceding vicar of St. Hilary, the Rev. Malachy Hitchins, was the author of several Papers of much merit in the Philosophical Transactions and the Archseologia.13 His son, Mr. Fortescue Hitchins of Marazion, wrote some pleasing poetry, and compiled the History of Cornwall edited by Drew. Marazion is also the birthplace of the late Mr. Pascoe Grenfell, " well known throughout England as an active member of parliament, as a man of talent and of great liberality, commensurate with his almost unexampled success in commerce."

The sand-banks and remains of a "submarine forest" between Marazion and Penzance, and between Penzance and Newlyn, have been noticed on pp. 151 - 161. Seaward of the latter sand-bank and about two hundred and fifty yards below the western extremity of the marine promenade in Penzance was the shaft of the famous Wherry mine.... '