"In this ragged pyle maybe obserued flue seueral workes: the firste of nature, whoe, as a mother, begate this stonye substance; nexte of force, where-by the water at the generall floude depryued it of her earth coueringe shelter, leauinge it naked; the therde of arte, which raysed a buylding vpon so cragged a foundation; fourth, of industrye, in workingc coiicauitye in so obdurate a subiecte ; lastly, of deuotion, wherein men, in their then well-wenninge zeale, would abandon, as it were, the societye of humane creatures, and vndergoe the tedious daylie ascent, and continuance of so cold and so abandoned a place. To this may be added a sixth worke, euen of Time, who, as she is the mother, and ben'etteth, so is she the destroyer of her begotten chyldren; and nothinge that she bringeth forth is permanent." — John Norden, 'Speculi Britanniæ Pars: A Topographical and Historical Description of Cornwall' (1597)