So, is the Cornish National Anthem 'The Song of the Western Men' otherwise known as 'Trelawny' or is it 'Bro Goth Agan Tasow' - 'Old Land of Our Fathers'? Well, it seems that as is the case in Scotland, there is room for both popular songs in Cornwall!
'The Song of the Western Men' more commonly known as 'Trelawny' was written as a poem in 1825 by the Reverend Robert Stephen Hawker (1803 -1875), priest, poet and mystic. Hawker was parson of the parish of Morwenstow on the desolate north Cornish coast for forty-one years and an eccentric. He dressed in claret-coloured coat, blue fisherman's jersey, long sea-boots and pink brimless hat. He talked to birds, invited his nine cats into church, and excommunicated one of them when it caught a mouse on a Sunday!
His poem, first published anonymously and later set to music told of the imprisonment of Cornishman Jonathan Trelawny (1650 - 1721) who was one of the seven bishops imprisoned in the Tower of London by James II in 1688.
When Trelawny was imprisoned in the Tower, the Cornish asked 'the reason why'. These words are thought to be an echo of a much older popular ballad, possibly from the time of the Cornish rebellion of 1497.
