d who is said to have floated
from the shores of the Emerald Isle to those of Cornwall on a miraculous
leaf, "by which", Mr. Arthur Salmon tells us, "is clearly meant a
coracle of the kind still to be seen in parts of Wales". The cell of St.
Ia stood on the site of the present parish church, which is said to
contain her bones, and this saint is not to be confounded with those of
St. Ive, near Liskeard, or St. Ives in Huntingdonshire. The position of
St. Ives, on the western slope of an extensive bay, and with two
remarkably fine sandy beaches, is one of uncommon beauty. The finest
views of the town and the neighbourhood are those obtained from the
grounds of the Tregenna Castle Hotel, and from the Battery Rocks.

A lofty hill to the south of the town, has a pyramidical erection of
granite in memory of John Knill, born in 1733. The obelisk bears three
inscriptions: "Johannes Knill, 1782"; "I know that my Redeemer liveth";
and "Resurgam". After serving his apprenticeship to a solicitor, Knill
became Collector of Customs, and afterwards Mayor of St. Ives. Long
before his death, which took place in 1811, he erected this mausoleum on
Worvas Hill, but it was never applied to its purpose, as he was buried
in London. Among the provisions of a curious will he ordained that
"certain ceremonies should be observed once every five years, on the
festival of St. James the Apostle; ten pounds to be spent in a dinner
for the mayor, collector of Customs, and clergyman, and two friends to
be invited by each of them, making a party of nine persons, to dine at
some tavern in the borough; five pounds to be equally divided amongst
ten girls, natives of the borough and daughters of seamen, fishermen, or
tinners, each of them not exceeding ten years of age, who shall, between
ten and twelve o'clock of the forenoon of that day, dance for a quarter
of an hour at least, on the ground adjoining the mausoleum, and after
the dance sing the 100th Psalm of the old version, to the fine old tune
to which the same was then sung in St. Ives Church; one pound to a
fiddler who shall play to the girls while dancing and singing at the
mausoleum, and also before them on their return home therefrom; two
pounds to two widows of seamen, fishers, or tinners of the borough,
being sixty-four years old or upwards, who shall attend the dancing and
singing of the girls, and walk before them immediately after the
fiddler, and certify to the mayor, collector of Customs, an