Cornwall, a maritime county, forming the south-western extremity of England, and the southernmost part of the British Isles. It is peninsular, tapering westward from Devonshire to the Land's End, bounded on the E. by Devonshire, on the N. by the Bristol Channel, on the W. by the Atlantic, and on the S. by the English Channel. No part of the county is more than 20 miles from the sea. The total length from Welcombe to the Land's End is 81 miles, and the extreme breadth from Morwenstow to the Rame Head 45 miles. The Scilly Isles, 24 miles W. of the Land's End, form part of the county. The area is 1365 sq. m., of which 63.4 per cent. is under cultivation. There are very extensive stretches of moorland, much rocky and barren, but a large proportion useful as mountain pasture. The surface of the county is very irregular, and a ridge of rugged, bleak, rocky hills, interspersed with moors, stretches from the Tamar to the Land's End, a continuation of the Dartmoor upland, and forming the watershed. Brown Billy (1368 feet) is the loftiest point in the county. As this range is nearer the north of Cornwall than the south, the principal rivers are on the southern side, and empty themselves into the English Channel. With the exception of a few unimportant creeks, there are only two harbours on the north coast—the estuary of the Camel, on which is Padstow, and the bay of St Ives. For nearly the whole of its length this north coast is formed of bold and picturesque cliffs; but at Perranzabuloe and Gwithian there are hills of blown sea-sand, which have buried much good land. The southern coast is also for the most part bold and rocky, but indented with many headlands and bays. Between the Land's End (5° 41' 31" W.) and the Lizard Point (49° 57' 30" S.) is the deep indentation named Mount's Bay, from St Michael's Mount, with the harbour-works of Penzance. East of the Lizard is Falmouth Bay, into which opens Falmouth Harbour, one of the finest in Britain. On the eastern boundary of the county is another of the great havens of the kingdom, Plymouth Sound. The estuary of the Fowey also affords a small but per- fectly sheltered deep-water harbour—of considerable importance in the middle ages. The chief river is the Tamar, which practically divides Cornwall from Devon, rising within 3 miles of the north coast at Wooley Barrows. It is tidal, and navigable for 19 miles (total length 59) from its embouchure in Plymouth Sound. Its principal Cornish tributary is the Notter, which enters it through the estuary of the Lynhir, and is navigable for 5 miles. The lower part of the estuary of the Tamar is called the Hamoaze. The Fowey is 30 miles long, and navigable for 6. The Fal is 20 miles long from its source to Falmouth Harbour, into which several smaller streams empty themselves through tidal creeks. The Camel (also called the Alan) is 29 miles long, 10 miles being tidal. There is a tradition that a large tract of land between the Land's End and the Scilly Isles was submerged by the sea. This is the fabled Lyonesse.
Cornwall is mainly composed of clay-slate, provincially called killas, which is broken along the higher ground by the protrusion of bosses of granite, in five larger and many smaller masses, probably connected beneath the surface. Associated with the granite are schorl and allied rocks, and there are many dikes of quartz- and felspar-porphyry, locally termed elvans. The slates are interspersed with igneous rocks, interbedded and intrusive, and there has been much alteration. The Lizard district presents the most complex series in the kingdom. Serpentine and gabbro are the most distinctive rocks here; but there are schists and gneisses and porphyries in singular variety. The stratified rocks of the east of the county are recognised as Devonian; in the central region Silurian are largely represented; the western may be still older; and the Lizard are believed to be partly Archæan. Mining has been carried on in Cornwall from prehistoric times, and the county has been regarded as the Cassiterides (q.v.) of the Phœnicians and Greeks. The most profitable mines are near the junctions of the granite and killas, and the most important mining area at the present day is around Camborne and Redruth; the deepest and richest mine is Dolcoath, wrought to a depth of about half a mile. The county yields tin, copper, lead, iron, zinc, silver, cobalt, antimony, manganese, bismuth, tungsten, and arsenic in commercial quantities; and a greater variety of minerals (some unique) than any other part of the United Kingdom. Gold has been found in alluvial tin works or 'streams,' the largest nugget over two ounces. Of late years mining has been very much reduced, and almost all the mines now existing are tin, of which Cornwall yields nearly all that is raised in the kingdom. The output of copper is at present small. Next to tin, the most important mineral product is china clay (kaolin), the decomposed felspar of granite which has undergone the natural process of kaolinisation. The chief centre of this industry is the district north of St Austell. Here also is found a peculiar kind of granite called china-stone (petuntze).
The fisheries of Cornwall are extensive and important, and in favourable seasons large quantities of pilchards are caught by seining, cured, and exported to the Mediterranean, where they form a common Lenten food. Herring and mackerel fisheries are also extensive, and enormous quantities are sent by rail to London and various inland markets. The climate is generally mild, but damp. In the extreme west of the county snow seldom lies, and the winter temperature is such that plants live and flourish in the open air that require protection almost anywhere else in England. At Trevarrick, near St Austell, and Lamoran and Penjerrick, near Falmouth, many foreign trees and shrubs have been successfully acclima- tised. Camellias grow and flower in the open air as luxuriantly as the common laurel in sheltered localities. The gardens at Trescoe, Scilly, are quite tropical in character, from the variety and beauty of their tropical contents. This favourable climate has been turned to good account in the Scilly Isles and the Penzance district, by the development of market-gardening for the supply of early vegetables to the leading markets, particularly broccoli and potatoes, of which double crops are raised annually. With the exception of the peach, nectarine, and apricot, nearly all fruit-trees thrive and mature; and the banks of the Tamar are specially favourable to the growth of cherries and strawberries, for rail supply. As a general agricultural county (its moorlands excepted), Cornwall stands high: the soil is rich; crops are abundant, and in some localities very early.
There are very few manufactures; and most of the inhabitants, since the falling off in mining, are employed in agriculture. Pop. (1881) 329,484; (1891) 322,589. Cornwall contains one parliamentary borough—Falmouth and Penryn, and six county divisions. It returned 40 members prior to 1832, 14 till 1867, 12 till 1885, and now 7 in all. The bishopric of Cornwall, merged in that of Exeter since Saxon times, was restored in 1876, and the see fixed at Truro.
Cornwall remained in the hands of its Celtic inhabitants, and under the rule of the British Church, with more or less completeness, until it was finally subjugated by Athelstan in 936. The ancient Cornish language belonged to the Cymric or Brythonic group of the Celtic tongues (see CELTS), and was akin to Welsh and Breton. It was generally spoken until the reign of Elizabeth, and it was not until 1678 that it finally ceased to be used in public worship. It lingered in the extreme west of the county until the early part of the 18th century; Dolly Pentreath (?1676-1778) of Mousehole is popularly regarded as the last who spoke it; while words and phrases have been handed down to the present day. The literature comprises a vocabulary dating probably from the 13th century, and some sacred dramas not earlier than the 14th. See Norris's Ancient Cornish Drama (1859); Whitley Stokes's editions of The Life of St Meriasch (1872), of The Mystery of the Creation (1864), and of the Glossary of Cormac (1864); the glossary of words still in use in Cornwall, published by the English Text Society in 1880; a paper by Lach-Szyrma in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall for 1883; and Jago's English-Cornish Dictionary (1887).
Cornwall abounds in rude stone and allied monuments—circles, remains of huts, menhirs, cromlechs, artificial caves or fogous, cairns and barrows, inscribed stones, and early crosses. The medieval antiquities are less important, the most noteworthy being the remains of the castles of the ancient earldom, created into a duchy in 1337 for the Black Prince. The eldest son of the reigning sovereign is Duke of Cornwall; and the revenues derived from the duchy by the Prince of Wales average £61,000 a year. In the management of the affairs of the duchy the Prince is assisted by a council, the chief officer of which is the warden of the Stannaries, by whose vice-warden the Court of the Stannaries, which has the local regulation of mining affairs, is held. See Tregellas's Cornwall (4th ed. 1884), and other works cited there.