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Nadelek Lowan

The picture is of the First and Last Inn and was drawn by James Tonkin in 1824 and printed and published by John Pope Vibert of Penzance as a black and White print. It has been digitally enhanced using Corel photo paint.

The First and Last is in the most westerly parish in the U.K. The Inn was in the ownership of the Vingoe family for 400 years passing via females lines from 1820 until it was sold at the end of 1981. Christmas was always a special time and carols were sung around the large open hearth as men practiced for the Midnight Mass in the church next door. It was a tradition that on Christmas eve a dinner would be served with the main dish being a blackbird pie.

Today you won't get the pie but you will get the carols and probably one of the best loved in the pubs of West Cornwall is "Whilst shepherds watched". There are over twenty different tunes and I heard that it was once sung in St Ives to a Paul McCartney tune. The favourite in the early 18th century was known as "Zadoc" and it is still sung in Padstow. In the mid 19th century the tune Diadem proved so popular that copies were printed and distributed to Wesleyans, Methodists and other evangelical groups and generations have learned the vigorous part-singing and the miners of Cornwall took the tune overseas with them. It is still sung in the old mining towns around the world. Today the most popular Cornish tune seems to be "Whilst Shepherds New" and in a crowded pub conversation ceases and everyone joins in when the carol is struck up.

Whilst shepherds watched their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground,

The angelof the Lord came down,
And glory shone around,
And glory shone around.

Fear not, said he, for mighty dread
Had seized their troubled mind.
Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you and all mankind
To you and all mankind.

To you, in David's town, this day
Is born of David's line

ASaviour, which is Christ the Lord,
And this shall be the sign,
And this shall be the sign.

The heavenly Babe you there shall find
To human view displayed,
All meanly wrapped in swaddling bands,
And in a manger laid,
And in a manger laid.

Thus spake the Seraph, and forthwith
Appeared a heavenly throng
Of Angels praising God and thus,

And glory shone around,
And glory shone around.

All glory be to God on high,
And to the earth be peace;
Good will henceforth from heaven to earth
Begin and never cease,
Begin and never cease!

Federation of Old Cornwall Societies