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diff --git a/38614.txt b/38614.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a6463d --- /dev/null +++ b/38614.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3818 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Cornwall, by G. E. Mitton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Cornwall + +Author: G. E. Mitton + +Illustrator: G. F. Nicholls + +Release Date: January 18, 2012 [EBook #38614] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CORNWALL *** + + + + +Produced by Anna Hall, Chris Curnow and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + CORNWALL + + + AGENTS + + AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY + 64 & 66 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK + + AUSTRALASIA OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS + 205 Flinders Lane, MELBOURNE + + CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD. + St. Martin's House, 70 Bond Street, TORONTO + + INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. + MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY + 309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA + + [Illustration] + + + + + THE LAND'S END + + CORNWALL + + PAINTED BY + G. F. NICHOLLS + + DESCRIBED BY + G. E. MITTON + + WITH + TWENTY FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS + IN COLOUR + + [Illustration] + + A. & C. BLACK, LTD. + 4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. + 1915 + + + + + Contents + + + CHAPTER I PAGE + POPULAR IDEAS OF CORNWALL 1 + + CHAPTER II + THE GATEWAY OF THE DUCHY 24 + + CHAPTER III + THE "TOE" OF CORNWALL 34 + + CHAPTER IV + FURTHEST WEST AND FURTHEST SOUTH 51 + + CHAPTER V + KING ARTHUR'S LAND 71 + + CHAPTER VI + THE SANDY BEACHES OF THE NORTHERN COAST 92 + + CHAPTER VII + THE INLETS OF THE SOUTH COAST 109 + + CHAPTER VIII + CORNISH TOWNS 124 + + CHAPTER IX + CORNISH CUSTOMS 135 + + SOME BOOKS ON CORNWALL 145 + + INDEX 147 + + + + + + List of Illustrations in Colour + + + 1. The Land's End _Frontispiece_ + FACING PAGE + 2. Carbis Bay 6 + 3. Kynance Cove 10 + 4. At Polperro 14 + 5. The Coast near the Lizard 16 + 6. Old Bridge at Lostwithiel 28 + 7. St. Michael's Mount 34 + 8. Newlyn 38 + 9. Lamorna Cove 42 + 10. Caerthilian Cove 66 + 11. St. Ives 92 + 12. A Street in St. Ives 94 + 13. From Lelant to Godrevy 98 + 14. Fowey 110 + 15. Bodinnick Ferry, Fowey 114 + 16. Looe 118 + 17. Flushing--from Falmouth 122 + 18. Truro 124 + 19. The Banks of the Fal, Falmouth 128 + 20. At Newlyn 138 + + _Bird's-Eye View of Fowey Haven, pp._ 112 _and_ 113. + _Sketch-Map at end of volume_. + + + + +CORNWALL + + + + +I + +POPULAR IDEAS OF CORNWALL + + +To the mind of the ordinary Briton there is a curious attraction in +"getting as far as you can"--a streak in mentality which has accounted +in no small degree for the world-wide Empire. In England you cannot in +one direction get any farther than the extreme point of Cornwall. Owing +to the geographical configuration of Cornwall, the idea is magnified +very vigorously into a really gallant effort to "get there," such as +might be made by an individual stretching out not only to his full +stride, but indulging in a good kick! We feel in very truth we have "got +there," on to the edge of something or somewhere. As Wilkie Collins +expresses it, the Land's End is "the sort of place where the last man in +England would be most likely to be found waiting for death at the end of +the world!" + +Thus it is that Cornwall holds a special magnet which steadily draws a +never-ending succession of strangers. Look only at those who do the feat +of cycling or motoring from John o' Groat's to Land's End. Picture them +in an indomitable long-drawn-out line, wheel to wheel; shadowy forms +flitting over that last--or first--piece of road, full of hope and +exultation at the thought of the journey's end, or full of anticipation +at the journey's beginning. No road in England has been so wheel-worn as +that strip running out to the most westerly point of England. + +Some there are who are drawn by a similar magnet to the Lizard, the most +southerly point of our land, but the attraction is not so potent. From +time immemorial John o' Groat's to Land's End has formed the measure of +Britain. + +For very many years Cornwall has been known for its fine coast scenery, +but wild and desolate scenery was not the fashion in Early Victorian +days, and there were comparatively few brave souls who penetrated so +far. It is rather remarkable to notice how many books about the charm of +Cornwall appeared in the sixties, doubtless due to the opening of the +Cornwall Railway in 1859. There is Wilkie Collins's _Rambles Beyond +Railways_, 1861; J. O. Halliwell's _Rambles in Western Cornwall_ and J. +T. Blight's _Land's End_, the same year, followed by Richard Edmonds's +_Land's End District_ the next year. + +But Cornwall really began to be known by hundreds of persons in place of +tens about 1904, and since then the number of visitors has increased to +thousands. + +This book is not written by a Cornishman, for the very obvious reason +that no Cornishman could for one instant think impartially of his Duchy, +any more than you could expect a Yorkshireman to believe that the "rest +of England" was in any way to be compared with Yorkshire. The more +individual and peculiar a person is, the more deeply is he loved by +those who really know him, provided that he has lovable qualities. No +characterless good soul ever wins the heartfelt devotion that is the +meed of those who have unexpected kinks and corners in their +personality, and in the same way a flat, featureless country, carefully +cultivated and uninteresting, will never win to itself the true +land-love felt for one that is varied, rough maybe, rugged a bit, and in +a hundred ways surprising. Of all things human nature hates boredom, and +the man or the country who can win free of any trace of boredom insures +a reward. Cornwall has in a peculiar measure gained the devotion of its +own people. Not only on account of its unexpectedness, but because it +stands in some measure apart from the rest of England. The Celtic blood +of its older inhabitants, while making them akin to the Welsh and Irish, +cuts them off from the Saxons, whom so often and so heartily in the old +days they fought. + +The geographical position of Cornwall, with three sides washed by the +sea, and even the "land" boundary mainly marked by a river, has +influenced its sons, who, never being far from the sound of the surging +waves, have gained something of the robust aloofness of the sailor. They +are friendly to all, but guarded nevertheless; and standing thus apart, +marked out by their territory, with small chance to mingle with +inhabitants of other counties, the clan feeling among them has grown to +be analogous to that of the clans in Scotland. All other Britishers are +to the true Cornishman "foreigners." How then could a man so imbued with +his own and his Duchy's place in regard to the "rest of England" write a +book which should convey in any way the real characteristics of his +land? + +It would be a feat impossible. + +The rugged outlines of a well-known face lose meaning with years of +familiarity, and are taken for granted; thus it is with landmarks in +Cornwall, which would never figure in such a chronicle at all. + +Therefore, as this book is intended not so much for those who know +Cornwall as for those who will know it sometime in that future which +lies beyond the reading of it, the impressions of an outsider are most +fitting. + +There are people who go to Cornwall once for a holiday and return to it +ever and again, when they get the chance, unable to find satisfaction +anywhere else; the "atmosphere" of the country has entered into their +blood. They think with an ache of the coast in all its cruelty and +glory, they picture the bright blue of the rain-washed skies in a burst +of sunshine, and they recall the great "hedges" with a foundation or +core of stone, generations old, overlaid by an ample covering of turf +and grass, a hot-bed for the stonecrop and hart's-tongue, fern, +primrose, or foxglove. + +But what is a catalogue of words? It conveys nothing, any more than a +catalogue of the names of books. Unless one can conjure up feelings, the +attempt to explain the grip of the Duchy on recollection is useless. The +clammy sea-wind on the face, the sense of great spaces, the grandeur of +the coast, with its solemn, immovable rampart of cliff, and the pulsing +life of the cold spray, for ever beating and frilling against the hard, +glistening surface--these enter into consciousness. Of all things +living, the swing of the seagull on motionless wings over a cavernous +hollow brings one nearest to the realization of a dream. + +Others again go to visit the Duchy and come away disappointed because +they have not found exactly what they wanted or expected. They take +small children to coast places of which they have only heard by name, +and are dismayed to find there is no sand, no beach, no bathing--only +hills steep as the blue slate-roofs; and a good deal in the "people's" +part of the town, which is narrow, slatternly and disagreeable. But it +is one of the traits of Cornwall that she embraces such wide variety and +shows such startling contrasts close up against each other. There are +certainly a great many places where there are no sands at all, nothing +but sheer wild cliffs falling perpendicularly to the sea, pierced by +gigantic caves, to be explored at low tide only, and a small strip of +shingle on which bathers are warned to enter at their peril, for the +huge breakers from the Atlantic roll in continually, and one moment +you are over head and shoulders in the smother of their foam, and the +next stand naked to the winds, with a villainous undertow sucking away +the pebbles from beneath your twitching soles. Carew, Cornwall's +best-known historian, speaks of the Duchy's "long, naked sides." The +writer on geology in the _Victoria County History_ says: "It has been +calculated that a single roller of the Atlantic ground-swell (20 feet +high) falls with a pressure of about a ton on every square foot." Places +where such forces are felt are the Poles apart from the usual English +seaside resort, sarcastically described by "Q" as "A line of sea in +front, a row of hotels and lodging-houses behind, all as flat as a +painted cloth, with a brass band to help the morality." Yet even in +Cornwall if you want sandy beach you can have it. There are sands that +stretch for miles, firm and flat, such as the famous beaches at St. +Ives; and in most places, even the rocky ones, there is some provision +made for bathing of a sort. + +[Illustration: CARBIS BAY] + +I think the reason why a small proportion of people are disappointed in +Cornwall is that the advertisements are focussed on one aspect only. In +almost every one of them is the mildness of the climate insisted on, and +this gives rise to semi-invalidish ideas. It is true that semi-invalids +who go there in winter in search of warmth can find suitable places if +they know where to go. Cornwall as a whole must have an equable climate, +or we should not see the growth of exotic plants out of doors--myrtle, +tree-geranium, aloes, palms, and camellias, to name only a few of the +most abundant--but the whole county is by no means a hot-bed of warmth, +and the winds are frequently very cold indeed. There are everywhere now +first-class hotels, with the ample lounges which have superseded the +shut-up drawing-room and smoking-room compartments of earlier days, and +these hotels mostly have verandahs so placed that the glorious sun can +flood them while the winds are kept at bay. There those who come to +recuperate can bask in delight, and draw straight from the Atlantic the +pure fresh air, which has a wonderfully tonic effect. + + "The lungs with the living gas grow tight, + And the limbs feel the strength of ten. + + * * * * * + + God's glorious oxygen." + +Two such verandahs come up before me as I write--that at Fowey, raised +high, and overlooking the most lovely harbour along the whole coast, +shut in by rising banks almost like a Norwegian fiord; the other, the +verandah at Housel Bay Hotel, where, facing due south, you may sit in an +atmosphere of summer which is indeed like a climate usually only to be +looked for many degrees further south. + +But though this aspect is the keynote of almost every advertisement, or +at any rate every winter advertisement, it is by no means the most +prominent or characteristic one of Cornwall, which appeals far more to +the hardy than the weak. When I think of Cornwall the vision that comes +before me is not that of sheltered sun-bathed balconies, but rather of a +high wind making the breakers frill around the jagged bases of the +cliffs, while above, amid the towans or sandhills covered with bent +grass, the golf-balls fly. The tang of the air seems once again in my +nostrils, carrying with it an exhilaration that makes the blood race in +the veins and entirely prevents tiredness. Only in one place elsewhere +have I felt that exact stimulus, and that was far west in the +neighbouring land of Brittany, near the Point du Raz, which stretches +razor-like into the ocean, and in many respects strikingly resembles a +bit of the Cornish coast. Many people will object that this is exactly +what they understand Cornwall does not offer; on the contrary they have +heard apologies for its stuffiness and the relaxing qualities of the +air. Why yes, if one visits it in the height of summer, and goes to one +of the many places situated in a hole or funnel and facing south, it +might be very relaxing indeed; but the "advertisements for invalids," if +one may so call them, usually refer to early spring and it is in early +spring that the invigorating breezes may be found almost anywhere the +whole way round, while the northern coasts are never stuffy even in +summer. + +Besides unusual golf facilities another feature appealing to the hardy +and sound are the cliff paths, mere coastguard tracks, unfenced and +unspoilt, which circle the whole coast. Those who keep to roads will +never see the real Cornwall and that is why so many motor-bound souls +miss it. One may wander for days on these cliff paths, lured on from +point to point and bay to bay, always rejoicing in something new or +glorious, something which beckons onward. At the foot of the vertical +walls of rock are tiny sandy bays for ever cut off from the foot of man +even at low tide, and inaccessible to all save the sea-birds, who well +know it! My mind brings back visions of great pieces of rock, torn and +ripped from their hold, and apparently flung pell-mell on the beach. +Except that they are usually three-cornered and not columnar, they are +somewhat like the drongs of Shetland in their piercing sharpness. +Remarkably fine specimens of these isolated rocks are seen at Kynance +Cove, near the Lizard, and at Bedruthan Steps, in Watergate Bay; but +almost everywhere some stand up aloof from the neighbouring cliff. + +[Illustration: KYNANCE COVE] + +Whoever loves the wild desolation of the northernmost Scottish coasts +will feel at home in Cornwall. Of course the cliffs are not nearly so +high--most of the Cornish cliffs could go four times into the finest +specimens of Mull or Shetland--but there is not much lost by this. The +human mind can only grasp up to a certain amount of size conveyed by the +eye in vertical measure, and after the first awed glance down a +1,000-foot cliff, when the mind is almost stunned, the impression +rapidly wears off, and all the grandeur needed is equally well conveyed +by 300 feet of sheer precipice, while the details of the natural carving +and the play of the wild birds on its crevices are far better observed. + +The popular idea of Cornwall in the minds of those who have not been +there is that there runs a long raised ridge down the middle like a +spine, and that from this on each side the ground slopes away to the +sea; but this is a very misleading idea. Cornwall is all hills, and yet +has none to boast of. Brown Willy, not far from Launceston, reaching to +1,375 feet, is the highest, but yet there is very little flat land +anywhere. If you took a silk handkerchief, crumpled it up in your hand, +and threw it on the table, it might fall somewhat as Cornwall is +constituted. The people who live there are used to hills and not afraid +of them. Why should they be? In most of the towns--and almost every +small village is a "church-town," while every stream is a river--the +streets are often at about the angle of an ordinary house-roof, and as a +rule there are miles of hill to be negotiated in rising out of the towns +for they lie in hollows or crevices, corresponding to the folds of the +handkerchief. This is not wonderful considering the fact that the wind +blows freely from the sea on both sides, and that it is in the hollows +and sheltered nooks that vegetation flourishes. There are of course +exceptions. Take such a town as Launceston. One main street has been +engineered to go round in curves, so as to enable horses--horses bred to +the work--to get up it, and at the top there is a bit of level, but most +of the other streets fall sheer down. When babes who can scarce toddle +scramble forth from their living-room on to a road slanting at an angle +of forty-five degrees or more, which forms their only playground, +naturally their leg muscles get strengthened, and as they grow up and +have to start off to school, or return from it, up a hill that taxes the +sinews of a "foreigner" till he groans, they make nothing of it. Roads +seem to wander at their own sweet will with no inclination to the Roman +ideal, but they never wander to avoid inclines; they tilt up and down +again with the most gracious equanimity, and a man on a cycle who has +struggled up a steep ascent and feels at last he will be able to reap +the reward, as often as not finds the descent too perilous to ride +without the utmost caution. Cornwall is not a county for cyclists except +they be strong in the leg; but it is good country for those pedestrians +who measure the day's journey by what they have seen and not by ground +got over as the crow flies, for they can follow the enchanting little +paths winding in and out by the great headlands of the coast. + +Cornwall is no place for being in a hurry. + +Many of the most famous sights, such as the great outlying cliffs at +Gurnard's Head, and the Logan Rock, are not anywhere near a road. The +roads keep inland, and for very good reason. These places have to be +reached over long, sloping fields, and entail a good deal of +scrambling--ideal places to resort to for a whole day with picnic +provision, so long as one has a clear head and steady foot, but not to +be sought as a "side-show." + +Very many of the little coast places too are down at the end of what may +be called long shafts, and to the ardent cyclist, intent on mileage, to +go down, down, down, for miles till he can see the cows grazing in the +fields high overhead, and to arrive at last at a little port where a few +old salts sit and smoke and idle, and there is no way of getting out +again but by the funnel, is a matter for as strong comment as conscience +permits. Yet again for those who love what is beautiful and unhackneyed, +there is charm beyond measure in the spirit of these places. In +Polperro, which might be a bit of Brittany planted wholesale in our +land; or Fowey, with its unforgettable harbour, where the blue tide +creeps up like a stain of spreading dye; or in Mullion, with its huge +rounded masses of rock lying off the coast. + +Another popular idea of Cornwall, also mistaken, is that the interior of +the Duchy is hideous and only the coast beautiful. There is much that is +ugly no doubt; raw places where the half-grown mounds of rubbish and +crumbling chimneys mark disused tin-mines; where the sharp and hard +outlines of slate shriek at you everywhere; where ragged, scrubby fences +break up an endless series of barren-looking fields, and the whole +landscape gives the impression that it is flying at a terrific speed +westward, heading into the prevailing wind, because all the trees and +shrubs that have managed to survive it at all are bent nearly double. +But what of the glorious wooded slopes in Bodmin neighbourhood where +smooth roads wind between the rich growth of woods? What of the famous +valleys such as Luxulyan and others? There is plenty inland attractive +enough if one knows where to look for it. + +[Illustration: AT POLPERRO] + +Perhaps this impression as to the interior has grown because the +painting fraternity, now a recognized part of Cornish society, mostly +paint views on or near the coast, having settled chiefly at and near +Newlyn and St. Ives. Mr. Lewis Hind, in his book on Cornwall, says: +"Probably two hundred canvases are despatched each year from the +Delectable Duchy to Burlington House and elsewhere; of this number +seven-eighths have been painted in Newlyn or St. Ives.... The great +centres are Newlyn, St. Ives, and Falmouth, and the votes of the +Cornish contingent, it is said, can turn the scale in an election at the +Royal Academy." + +The truth is, Cornwall must be taken in bits, and often the most hideous +lie close up alongside the most attractive; however they only help to +intensify that which is very good. People who look too cursorily are the +most often disappointed. + +Wandering about Cornwall certainly induces one ache, and that is the +ache to be more knowledgeable. Those lucky creatures who know something +of botany and geology here have delights not unfolded to others. +Cornwall is a paradise for the botanist and geologist, because for the +former there are rare species and some altogether unknown elsewhere, +such as the _Erica vagans_ so often mentioned, which grows in the +neighbourhood of the Lizard. In fact Cornwall possesses more +specialities in plant-life than any other county in England. For the +latter because even the amateur can see the wonder and difference of the +rocks: the pink tinged granite of Land's End, the great granite tors +inland on the moors, and the variegated serpentine at the Lizard, as +well as the cruel, sharp-edged slate of the northern coast. While as for +the archaeologist is there any part of Britain that affords him such +endless material? A mere enumeration of the ancient stone crosses, +the standing stone circles, the cromlechs, the British huts, the +earthworks, the cliff-castles, the hill-castles or camps, the stone +graves, the chambered cumuli, the barrows, and other relics of a +long-past age, would fill pages. The moors are covered with them and the +bare heights above Land's End are a rich hunting-ground. + +[Illustration: THE COAST NEAR THE LIZARD] + +This evidence of the lives and habits of the very ancient inhabitants +adds much depth and flavour to the "atmosphere," and especially when it +is remembered that the original Cornish are the purest example of that +old race--the British. Mr. W. H. Hudson, in his book _The Land's End_, +quotes Lord Courtney's saying: "The population of Cornwall in general +has remained much more homogeneous, much more Celtic in type, than in +other parts; and of all Cornwall there is no part like this [Penzance +and Land's End district] in which we meet with probably so pure a breed +of human beings." + +The nation now calling itself British has Saxon, Teutonic, French, and +Norse blood in its veins, as well as that of the original stock; but +when the successive waves of invaders swept over the country, they +usually exhausted themselves before reaching this remote corner, into +which the oldest island stock was swept up. + +This probably accounts for the queer impression one often gets in +Cornwall of being abroad. It comes suddenly, rising like one of the +Cornish mists and enveloping one, until suddenly the conviction that one +is across the sea, far from home, flows almost overwhelmingly over the +mind. There is much more likeness and kinship between parts of Cornwall +and parts of Brittany than between Cornwall and most of the rest of +England. There is no doubt that Cornwall differeth not as "one county +from another county," but as one county from all the rest. Here, where +the British race had its last stronghold, the stamp of the national +characteristics was retained in its effects much longer than elsewhere. +Nowadays of course there is intermarrying and travelling, and frequent +streams of new blood coming in--half the people you speak to are not +Cornish at all--but still there is something remaining which stamps them +as a whole. It has often been noticed that there are traces of Spanish +blood to be found in the dwellers in the extreme west where many of the +great Spanish galleons were wrecked in bygone days; just as there are +found brown faces and black hair in the Fair Isle of the Shetlands, +where half the population intermarried with some Spaniards of the great +Armada wrecked on their coast. In this part of Cornwall one constantly +sees women with clear-skinned faces, dark-brown eyes and hair, of a +distinctly foreign type. The people, with their rather remote and +surface friendliness, have often been described. They will greet you +pleasantly and courteously--courteous manners have lingered here--small +boys, and men too, still salute a stranger in passing with a greeting, +and if one asks the way the answer will be no abrupt direction, but a +careful and minute description repeated until clearly understood. Even +in Wilkie Collins's time the people were noticeable for their courtesy. +He says: "The manners of the Cornish of all ranks, down to the lowest, +are remarkably distinguished by courtesy--a courtesy of that kind which +is quite independent of artificial breeding, and which proceeds solely +from natural motives of kindness and from an innate anxiety to please. +Few of the people pass you without a salutation." + +As it was then so it is now. + +Yet everywhere one feels a want; there is a lack of something. Perhaps +it is they are too matter-of-fact; a passing jest leaves them puzzled. +There is none of the dry humour of the Scot, which makes every man you +meet on the road in Scotland instinctively approach a remark from what +may be called the humorous angle. As an example of the Cornish lack of +this quality, when I remarked to a man who was showing me a real fine +golf-links stretching over the sandy towans of bent-grass, "these +sandhills are simply made for golf," he answered: "Oh no, they were not +made for the links; they were here long before!" + +The people simply don't understand analogy or imagery; their minds are +very literal. In this part of the world they may well be literal, for +the hard necessity of making a livelihood from very poor material must +crush out fun. Yet in spite of many hardships endured, it is a rare +thing to see a pale or miserable-looking child. The children are round +and rosy, with sturdy legs, as indeed they may well have for they need +them. This general well-being cannot be altogether attributed to the +pure air, because in the Shetlands and on the West Coast of Scotland +where the air is just as pure the children are usually brown and thin. +It may be that this is due to the lack of milk, the heaths of Scotland +affording scant pasturage, while the constant moisture of the air in +Cornwall makes the grass grow richly. + +At midday you will see the bairns running along the street munching +great pasties--a Cornish specialty--made with bits of meat and onion and +potato in a cover of paste, and the pasty seems to be the school-child's +usual dinner. Another specialty of Cornwall are the yellow saffron +cakes, so unappetizing in appearance to those unused to them. Of the +cream there is hardly need to speak. As one ardent admirer of the Duchy +remarked: "Of course, Devonshire cream _is_ Cornish cream, only they've +managed to get all the credit for it." In spite of this testimony it +seems to me there is a difference, the Cornish variety is at once more +fluid and more lumpy, but this may be an erroneous opinion based on +insufficient experience. + +Of history Cornwall has little. The brightest jewel in her coronet is +that she stood unfailingly for the Stuarts in the Civil Wars, and many a +church holds a letter of thanks from King Charles I. Except for the +struggles of that epoch, the Duchy has little to tell of what may be +called historical times, but before them much. It is in the misty ages +before the Norman Conquest that history was made in Cornwall, and every +now and then we catch fleeting glimpses of scenes standing out bright +and clear amid a general fog, just as we can to-day catch the vivid +pictures of the landscape before the grey mists sweep down with +incredible speed and blot them out. We see Athelstan's terrible fight +with the Britons; his establishment of the collegiate church at St. +Buryan in pursuance of his vow, when he returned victorious from the +Scilly Isles. We get brilliant peeps in the legends of King Arthur; in +the mysterious beehive huts and stone circles of a people who have +vanished; in the whimsical tales of the early saints who scattered +themselves so freely over the land on their arrival from Ireland; and we +find hieroglyphic messages we cannot read in structures we call +cromlechs and in the cliff-castles. + +Small wonder that Cornwall is a land of legend and story, and that tales +of fabulous men and wonder-working men abound. In our very earliest +nursery days, long before we could point to Cornwall on the map, we +learned to repeat: + + "Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum, + I smell the blood of a Cornishman. + Let him be alive or let him be dead, + I'll grind his bones to make me bread." + +And if modern nurseries substitute "Englishman" for "Cornishman," that +is distinctly their loss. The coast with its mighty fragments and giant +"chairs" and enormous blocks of stone is quite obviously the home of +giants. + + + + +II + +THE GATEWAY OF THE DUCHY + + +The gateway to the Duchy is impressive--that is to say, the gateway by +which far the largest proportion of visitors enter--the railway bridge +of the Great Western at Saltash. This marvellous bridge of Brunel's has +been often described; it does not impress by its beauty for it has none, +but by its tremendous height and length. It is 2,240 feet from end to +end, and rises 260 feet above the water. It cuts across the narrowest +part of that great ganglion of waters which break up the land behind +Plymouth Sound. On the north lie the broad inlets of the Rivers Tamar +and Tavy, and to the south that of the St. Germans or Lynher River +curves away, and all along it the line runs, crossing the broad inlets +of mud at low tide and shining water at high tide, giving a glimpse of +the famous Hamoaze at Devonport and the busy dockyards filled with the +clang of driven rivets. + +In the Hamoaze lies the _Powerful_, an establishment consisting of +three ships for the training of boys, and also the _Impregnable_, used +for the same purpose, with two ships attached; one of them has a fine +figure-head of the Black Prince. These are close to the ferry to Mount +Edgcumbe, the family seat of the Earl of that name. The lads have +drillgrounds and playgrounds ashore, but live on board. When they all +swarm about the decks and rigging in their white suits, to rest in the +sun for a brief half-hour after the midday meal, it is as if a flock of +sea-birds had alighted on the picturesque old hulk. + +In old times the destroyers used to be moored, two by two, when in port, +just below Saltash Bridge, and this place was called the "destroyer +trot," but the war has changed all that. Above the bridge are two +powder-hulks. + +If we passed up the river in a small boat we should see a variety of +bird-life. The most attractive are the cranes, measuring upwards of 5 +feet in length, ash-coloured with blackish wings and black legs. They +stand and fish on the margin of the river, especially at evening time, +planted close together like sentinels up to their knees in the water. +They rise most gracefully and their great wings move slowly in measured +action. The gulls and rooks are jealous of them, possibly seeing in +this measured movement some imagined superiority, for they occasionally +buffet them as they fly. There is a current saying accounting for the +erratic allotment of days in the spring quarter. It is said that March +borrowed a few days of February to catch the crane on her nest, but he +only caught her tail, and so the crane has no tail since then! Milton +speaks of the migration of the cranes when he says: + + "Part loosely wing the region; part, more wise, + In common, ranged in figure, wedge their way, + Intelligent of seasons; and set forth + Their airy caravan; high over seas + Flying, and over lands with mutual wing + Easing their flight; so steers the prudent crane + Her annual voyage, borne on winds, the air + Floats as they pass, fanned with unnumbered plumes." + +The most common birds up these tidal rivers are the sheldrake. They are +plentiful and very tame as they sit dozing away the hours in little +parties on the tide edge, or flighting over the water with low musical +quacks. They are extremely white when on the wing--in fact that is how +one always thinks of them, white and orange. The orange flash is their +bill, which is brightened in the springtime. They give poor sport for a +gun, and don't seem to be of much use. They were the wildest of all wild +fowl but have now taken on the tamest ways. + +And all the time in spring you can hear the wild musical note of the +curlew, and see the dun-coloured birds flitting against the green of the +woods. They are shy and wary, and common along the shores on the sands +which are exposed at low water. Ringed plovers can sometimes be seen +running on the wet surface of the sands at the tide's edge, flocks of +lapwings too. Teal is by no means infrequent up the rivers, and an +occasional shag (cormorant) may be noticed swimming far up towards +Saltash and fishing. In its spring dress, with its horn-like crest, and +miserable-looking yellow face, and its lustrous dark-green plumage, the +shag is a handsome bird. Mallard is fairly plentiful in the rivers, and +you may see flocks sleeping away the day-hours on the flats, and +recognize them by the longitudinally marked plumage of the drakes. +Sometimes they fly back and forth as gulls do while they wait for the +tide to ebb. Small birds there are, of course, in numbers, such as +wag-tails, sandpipers, and the oddly crying and flying redshank, a shore +bird. It wheels above the tide-line, or rests, bowing quaintly, on some +grassy hummock near a pool. + +But these things can only be studied in leisured intimacy from a +slow-going boat passing in the spring-time, when the blackthorn frosts +the hedges and starry-eyed primroses grow to monstrous size. The train +which flashes us across the bridge reveals none of them! + +In the first glimpse of our first Cornish "town" we catch sight of a +steep winding street, which serves as full introduction, for in many a +Cornish town shall we see the same again! And then, even as the train +runs in the cuttings of Cornish soil, we realize almost at once the +key-note of Cornwall--the extraordinary richness of growth. Ivy bursts +over every wall in a perfect cataract; ferns and small wild things fill +every crevice with their grasping roots, and even in winter there is no +thinness or barrenness to be felt for evergreens flourish amazingly. The +wooded reaches of the hills dispel the idea that Cornwall is everywhere +a treeless land, and the constant dampness of its climate is shown by +the lichen which clings to every branch and twig like hoar-frost, so +that in winter the whole mass has a curious shot-green-and-brown +effect. + +[Illustration: OLD BRIDGE AT LOSTWITHIEL] + +The West Cornwall Railway, reaching as far as Truro, was opened in 1852, +and the Cornwall Railway in 1859. Both of these were afterwards absorbed +by the Great Western Railway. + +One of the most beautiful parts of the whole line is that between +Liskeard and Bodmin Road. The woods run riot on the ever varying slopes, +and the evergreens are so fine, with their abundance of clean, glossy +leaves, that even the ordinary country roads have something of the +appearance of a carefully tended private drive. + +The Cornish valleys are especially treasured by the people and much +admired, because they present such a striking contrast to the high bleak +uplands. That it is only the wind which prevents the growth of trees may +be judged from these valleys, where they flourish finely. Take Luxulyan +Valley, running down to St. Blazey, a place where hundreds come for +picnics. Even in any part of England it would be admired; here its charm +is enhanced by its surroundings. There are plenty of trees of a fair +size, and the sides of the valley are covered with bracken and furze, +from which peep out great grey rocks. Primroses and violets abound in +the spring, and the mossy boulders and the extensive variety of ferns +show a flourishing vegetation almost like that of a fern-house under +glass. There is something also about the grey lichened rocks bursting +out of the waist-deep furze and bracken that serves to emphasize the +fulness of growth. The only drawback about Luxulyan is that it lies in +the china-clay country, and the stream which runs down to ugly St. +Blazey is white as milk. This china-clay is one of Cornwall's most +living industries now that the tin-mining has declined, and the +pilchards come so scantily. It is the product of decomposed granite +owing to the action of fluoric acid. The works where it may be seen at +its best are near Roche, on the little line between Newquay and Fowey, +and here the piles of white earth might be mistaken for flour or +whitening by those who did not know what they were. The clay is sent +down by rail to Fowey, and the greater number of the steamers putting +into that harbour are engaged in carrying it away. At Roche is an +extraordinary rock starting sheer up from the plain. On the top was +formerly a cell or hermitage, of which Norden says quaintly, "It +standeth upon the wilde moares farr from comon societie." + +There are innumerable "singing valleys" in Cornwall, though mostly +small. I call them so because of the congregation of singing-birds here +crowded together for lack of nesting-places, instead of being spread +thinly over the district. As can easily be understood, there is no +difficulty in nesting for the larks, who make joyous the wide uplands, +or for the sea-birds who haunt the rugged coast, and only come inland at +times of storm, or to follow in a white, restless cloud close at the +heels of the ploughman as he turns up the sod and exposes the fat white +slugs and delicious grubs. Nor is there any difficulty for the smaller +hedge-birds, least of all the wrens, who, like red-brown butterflies, +flit in perfect safety to the roomy depths of the age-old "hedges." +These hedges in Cornwall are, particularly in the west, but a core of +hard stone piled loosely together and covered with mud or sod and the +growth of many generations of plant-life, and knitted by creeping plants +till they stand broad-based and immovable like ramparts, and are used as +paths by the inhabitants, who pass quickly and safely from one swampy +field to another along their turfy tops. Indeed in flooded winter-time +it is often the only possible path, and when the main road lay deep in +water I have been reduced to dragging my bicycle on to the summit of a +"hedge" and wheeling it precariously along. Such places are paradises +for Jenny Wren, who springs into the maze of twisted stalks and heavy +leaves, and hops about the spacious corridors in the perpetual twilight, +perfectly secure from intrusion. Smaller birds too can make shift with +the windblown specimens of shrubs that sometimes adorn such hedges, but +the great majority prefer something of larger size and so gather +wherever trees make an oasis. + +One such "singing valley" is Landewednack, near the Lizard, called +locally Church Cove, one of the sweetest of the Cornish chines. The +little church is charming architecturally with its weathered pinnacles +crowning the grey stone tower. The small-leaved Cornish elms cluster +round the graveyard, and show through their warped and twisted stems +glimpses of the infinite blue sea, giving an idea of boundless +expansion, and adding to the snugness of the shut-in valley. The +emerald-green moss clings thickly to the westward or windward side of +the crusted trunks, and at their foot what a riot of vegetation! The +sound of running water and the brilliant green of the grass, as well as +the masses of long hart's-tongue ferns falling abundantly from the +churchyard wall, all tell of perpetual moisture. Passing beyond the +church, we come to a few thatched cottages placed anglewise to the +steeply falling road, and near them see an immense hedge of veronica +covered with big, furry, heliotrope-coloured blossoms, affording shelter +to the straggling blue periwinkles below. Every niche and crevice of the +wall shows small, green, flat leaves crawling out to the sun and light. +Only a short way below, the cove comes to an abrupt end, and there is a +steep drop made smooth for the boats, which have to be hauled up by +pulleys, while the sea below for ever beats on the huge black stones. +The marvel is how the boats are ever got up and down such a place, and +that marvel confronts one everywhere in Cornwall. This cove is typical +of hundreds,--vegetation down almost to the water's edge, a haunt of +singing-birds, a tiny steep cove very inconvenient and dangerous for +landing, and mighty cliffs rising at each side. + + + + +III + +THE "TOE" OF CORNWALL + + +Penzance is strongly reminiscent of the Channel Isles to those who know +both. There is the same odd mixture of sternness in the bare outlines of +the stone houses--as bare as those on the Cumbrian Fells--and the +unexpected luxuriance of growth, the flourishing tree-shrubs such as +hydrangeas and fuchsias, in backyards and odd corners. When one gets a +vista down the Morab Gardens in the midst of the town, with the steep +green depths framed by the bushy-topped palms falling away to the +brilliant blue sea, one might almost be having a peep in the Riviera, if +we accept the lack of orange-trees, with their golden lamps, so +beautiful to the sight, so disappointing to the taste! It is surprising +to those coming from harsher parts of England to see the deprecating +droop of the blue-grey tongues of the eucalyptus, the feathery grace of +clumps of bamboo, and the glossy-leaved bushes of camellia. At any rate, +whatever one compares the place with, one is conscious of an odd +surprise at its un-English characteristics. + +[Illustration: ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT] + +The "front" is not the great attraction at Penzance. No doubt the +wonderful bay, with its priceless jewel of St. Michael's Mount, does at +all times satisfy the imagination; but the flat esplanade, the +singularly ineffective strip for sea-bathing, and the rather dull style +in which most of the houses are built, are not in themselves attractive. +The bay can be seen better elsewhere, from the heights of the very ample +churchyard of St. Mary's for instance, overlooking the grey slate roofs, +or from Newlyn Hill, when at sunset time all the colours of the spectrum +may be reflected on the Mount, and the only thing one can say with +perfect certainty is that it is never twice exactly alike. One of the +most lovely visions is when the sun catches it through a rift in sombre +clouds, bathing it in a kind of unearthly radiance or dawning light, +while Penzance, with its tall-pinnacled church tower, is all mouse-grey. +And when a rainbow arches over one side of the steep slope, as I have +seen it, it is almost unearthly. + +Sometimes the Mount disappears entirely, melting into its background, or +only the castle is left visible, apparently unsupported except by a +filmy mist. There is no end to the vagaries played by the lights and +shadows and sea-colours on this wonderful instrument. Indeed the Mount +is chiefly valuable for this reason, because, owing to the fact that it +is private property, and that access to it is much restricted, it is not +nearly so much an object of intrinsic interest as its grand counterpart +in Brittany. + +It must be a strange place to live on. When the St. Levan family arrive +they have to go over by launch from Penzance, probably after a long +journey by rail; and the weather, if tempestuous, must make even such a +short crossing unpleasant. Once there, there is the stupendous steep to +climb--no trifle, even though the roads are graded. Dining out with +county neighbours must be an almost impossible feat, and grand as the +surroundings are, they must pall very soon because of their limitations. +Tradition says that the men-folk of the family are not supposed to be +able to swim properly until they can swim all round the Mount, a fine +undertaking in view of the rocks and shoals! + +The Mount in Brittany is only 57 feet higher, but looks much larger, +which is curious, as it stands considerably farther out to sea, being +11/4 miles away; the Cornish one is only about 1,200 feet from the +mainland. Perhaps the reason is the greater variety and grandeur of the +buildings on St. Michel. + +The old name of Marazion was Market-jew, and the two together certainly +make most people imagine there is some Israelitish association; but this +is unfounded. Marazion is "the market by the seaside," and Market-jew +"the market on the side of the hill." Some have supposed the Mount to +have been the Ictis of the ancient tin trade, where the merchants from +far met the inhabitants to barter for tin. "When they have cast it [the +tin] into the form of cubes, they carry it to a certain island adjoining +Britain called Ictis. During the recess of the tide the intervening +space is left dry, and they carry over abundance of tin in carts" +(Diodorus Siculus). Many other islands have been suggested to fit this +account, even the Isle of Wight; but the bed of the sea must have +changed very quickly if people could in historic times pass over to it +on foot at low tide! + +The legend of the fair land of Lyonnesse is supported by the evidence of +a submarine forest in Mount's Bay, noted by Borlase in 1757. This seems +to have been a wood chiefly of hazel, but with alders, oaks, and other +trees, and is by no means the only case of a submerged forest being +found around the shores of Cornwall. Great trunks have been disclosed, +and even hazel-nuts and twigs; but it is a big step from the subsidence +of some parts of the shore and the consequent submergence of forest +land, to the story of the overwhelming of such a land as Lyonnesse, +reaching out as far as Scilly and containing many villages and churches. + +To return to Penzance. The town is very irregular, its meandering +streets meet at all angles, and here and there are linked by narrow, +passage-like cross-cuts, ofttimes as steep as wynds. There is a very +noticeable prevalence of Nonconformist places of worship, and these +show, as most of their kind do, a hideous lack of architectural beauty, +a sort of defiance of the pride of the eye. The Cornishmen since +Wesley's crusade have been strongly Nonconformist, notwithstanding the +fact that Wesley himself was a son of the Church. They probably find the +rigidity of the Established Church too formal for their fervent souls. +Nonconformity appeals to them as it does to their cousins the Welsh, and +it is a curious thing that St. Mary's, the most ancient of the churches, +should be the opposite of this, with ritualistic services, whence the +smell of incense is wafted into the uncompromising streets. + +[Illustration: NEWLYN] + +The greatest son of Penzance is Sir Humphry Davy, who was born here in +1778. He belonged to an old Cornish family. His statue stands at the +head of the sloping Market-jew Street. + +Though Penzance has not in itself anything very remarkable to show in +the way of beauty, it is certainly a good centre for excursions, being +at the very joint of the swollen and deformed "toe" of the county. Roads +start from it in all directions over this much-sought peninsula, and it +would be easy to spend not one, but many weeks hunting out all the +quaint and interesting things, both natural and artificial, to be seen +within reasonable distance. + +Newlyn, home of the painting colony known all the world over, is close +to Penzance, and straggles up the side of a terrific hill. Rows of +stereotyped villas in terraces now overlook the bay, and are eagerly +taken as they are built. But round the harbour linger still the odours +of the typical old fishing village, and there are few sights more +suggestive to the imagination than the scattering of the red-sailed +fishing-boats as one by one they pass at evening time out between the +narrow horns of the harbour to their rough, wet nights of toil in the +clammy sea air. Newlyn is famous for its apple-blossom, and the vision +of the bay between masses of apple-blossom in springtime is one never to +be forgotten. Newlyn itself is easily accessible compared with +Mousehole, right round the corner, tucked away under the cliff. Here a +name for once is thoroughly suitable, for the little place is hemmed in +by the towering hills, and the principal ways on foot out of it are by +tiny overgrown lanes, so narrow that two people can hardly pass, so +steep that in places they are veritable staircases, with rotten wooden +steps, or those made from hollowed mud worn by many feet. Yet whether +the name really does mean what it appears to, or is only a corruption of +some other word with a totally different significance, is not known. R. +Edmonds (_Land's End District_) suggests "Mozhel" or "Mouzhel," meaning +maids' brook or river, as a stream used for washing by the women runs +through the town. + +The constant steep places in Cornwall are a great puzzle to many people +who come with an idea that the Duchy is neatly and evenly sloped, rising +in the middle and falling down to the sea on each side. As has been +explained, this is very far from the truth. A pilgrimage round the +county is like climbing a succession of ridges. The steeps are so steep +that they demand real physical effort, and even the drops put a strain +on unaccustomed leg-muscles. Newlyn Hill taxes the strength of those +coming from normally level districts. It is to be hoped that only horses +born and bred in Cornwall are used for the charabancs and other public +vehicles; it would be sheer cruelty to bring horses from flat-lands +here. + +If we scrambled along the coast beyond Mousehole we should come to +Lamorna Cove, a deep indentation filled with scrub-bush and small trees. +Wherever it is possible trees grow in Cornwall; they take advantage of +every atom of shelter, and every cleft in the ground out of the raging +wind is filled with them. + +The soil is wonderfully fertile, and the constant wet--not even its most +ardent admirer denies that Cornwall gets rather more than its share of +rain--develops a prodigal amount of growth in the way of ferns and +creepers and other plants that like warm moisture. At Lamorna is a +colony of artists; they have settled here as an outpost from Newlyn, for +the natural beauty and remoteness of the place suit them. They have +their picturesque houses within friendly reach all up and down the +little glen, and take pride in their gardens, with wonderful rockeries +and babbling streams, and all the rich growth that the soil and climate +bring forth. They drop in on one another at all hours, and know all +about each other's concerns. They are a friendly, kindly, +generous-hearted clan. Here, where the woods are white with hawthorn in +the spring, the stream gushes down in endless waterfalls, and the waves +burst and break on the rocks in the cove below, every one of them can +find endless scenes for his or her brush. + +Mrs. Alfred Sidgwick's book, _In Other Days_, gives a picture of Lamorna +Valley in the guise of fiction: "It was a brilliant March day, warm in +the sun, cold in the wind. The gorse and the blackthorn were both out, +spreading the wild copse and common of the valley with a shimmer of +white and gold. The old bracken still lay in patches of ruddy brown, +primroses were just beginning shyly, and the short grass of the open +places had not put on its summer hues yet. The sky was clear and deep, +with little white clouds scudding across it; larks were singing, and in +the distance sounds of men at work in the fields were heard. The air was +scented with herbs and fresh from the sea, but sheltered by the lie +of the low hills, and by old, long-neglected trees. In some places the +trees were of a great height and girth, making a gloom over the huge +moss-grown granite rocks strewing the earth and edging the little +stream.... A small swamp full of peppermint scented the air." + +[Illustration: LAMORNA COVE] + +That is the work of a close observer. + +In this neighbourhood there are many of those curious relics of bygone +times, which are bestrewn about Cornwall more thickly than any other +part of England. The Fougou Hole in one of the gardens is a weird place, +and its meaning and use is even yet little understood. It is a tiny, +damp vault, made of great, unhewn stones, and reached by a hole in the +ground. Here it is said harried cavaliers took shelter in the Civil +Wars, but the Hole is much older than that; it dates back to those +strange times beyond the dawn of history of which we only get vague +glimpses. + +In the fields above, gaunt stones rise like pointing fingers to the sky. +These are called "The Pipers," and mark the scene of Athelstan's defeat +of the British in 936; it is the "place of blood." But if they were +really erected by Athelstan in the tenth century, and are not, as is +possible, relics of Druid worship, they are modern compared with the +Fougou Hole. Not far from them, in the midst of a grass-field, are the +"Merry Maidens," a circle of grey stones about 24 yards in diameter; +there are nineteen of them altogether, none quite the height of a man, +and some much smaller. They convey an impression of immovable solemnity, +as such age-old things always do, for they are planted so securely, and +look so indomitable with their grey, lichen-covered sides four-square to +the winds. Local tradition tells how the Merry Maidens were caught +dancing on the Sabbath to the music of the pipers, and turned to stone, +but history is silent as to their origin. There is indeed all over +Cornwall many a reminder of the ancient world now lost to all record. In +various other places are to be found other circles of Merry Maidens just +as much of a problem as these, but none so perfect or so impressive. + +The long, narrow, rectangular tower of St. Buryan, crowned with +pinnacles, dominates all the landscape; exactly of this pattern are most +of the Cornish church towers. They are generally as much alike as if +they had been turned out of a mould. This is one of the most interesting +of the many interesting churches in Cornwall. After Athelstan's +triumphant victory near Lamorna, he vowed he would establish here a +large religious foundation if he were successful in his further +expedition to the Scilly Isles; and when he returned a conqueror he +carried out his vow. This was about 930. Of course, there is nothing +remaining of that church, but the present building contains much +grotesque carving of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and the +greater part of the building must have stood from the fifteenth or +sixteenth. There is a peacefulness about the ancient church, set in the +long, billowing fields bordered by rugged hedges, gorse and ivy-grown, +that appeals peculiarly to some natures. It is all very quiet. + +Down on the shore, not many miles away, is a great pile of splintered +rocks jutting out into the sea, to be reached by a narrow neck. This is +Treryn Dinas or Castle, where is the famous Logan stone. The striking +thing about the rocks is that so many take the form of cubes, some of +the most astounding being almost exactly the shape of the ancient +Egyptian obelisks. There are so many shattered, square-edged lumps, +resting on small bases, that the difficulty to the stranger is to +discover the real Logan Rock, which brings hundreds of visitors to the +place in summer. This headland has evidently been at one time a +fortified cliff-castle, and in passing over to the peninsula visitors +cross the first line of defence or earthworks, though few would notice +it. + +From Penzance we might run out by any one of the diverging roads across +the peninsula, and be sure of coming upon some relic of the most ancient +race inhabiting these islands. + +By way of Madron we should pass the Lanyon Quoit or Cromlech, a great +slab of rock 18 feet long, supported on three other slabs which are just +a little too low to allow a man to stand upright beneath it. In 1816 it +fell or was blown down; before this a mounted man could sit under it. +When Lieutenant Goldsmith in 1824 committed the silly trick of upsetting +the Logan Rock, and was condemned by the Admiralty to rebalance it at +his own expense, the apparatus brought down to the duchy for the purpose +was also used to replace the cap of the Cromlech, though why it should +be of less height now than before is not known. + +Amid the bleak hills around are to be found constant remains of ancient +British villages, rather in the manner of the Picts' houses of Scotland. +That the strange people who lived in them thrashed corn for food and +kept cattle, there is plenty of evidence. They lived in these little +beehive huts, which were sometimes placed singly, sometimes two or +three together, often with an embankment round, or a good cave near for +retreat if necessary. The huts are circular and built without cement or +mortar. Fragments of pottery have been found in and around. Some of them +are near Chun Castle, that ancient earthwork, one of the half-dozen or +so in the "toe" of Cornwall. This district was the last stronghold of +the British race, who had retreated before the Western invaders to the +very extremity of the land. + +By any one of these roads we should come at last out on to the coast +road--rather grandiloquently called "The Atlantic Drive"--running from +Land's End to St. Ives. This has been compared with the famous Corniche +drives of the Riviera. But beware! Don't expect too much, or you will be +terribly disappointed. Yet if you go with an open mind, expecting +nothing, you will see something of very real interest and carry away new +knowledge. + +The fields are in many places simply covered with stones. How the corn +finds room to grow is a miracle. The constant winds try everything +growing very severely, and there is a look of bare poverty about the +land. It is often compared with Ireland, and called the Connemara of +England; but in some ways, especially in the amount of stones, it is +more like bits of Galloway. Stone is employed for objects which +elsewhere are usually made of wood. The stiles are broad slabs of +granite, the gate-posts are granite blocks, and as we have seen, the +very "hedges" are stone. The name Zennor suggests gauntness of a Puritan +kind. The whole of the great hill above Zennor is covered with immense +and, if one may use such an expression, dignified stones. Away up among +them is another huge quoit or cromlech, probably marking the +burial-place of some chieftain long before Arthur's date. It is a grand +place for burial too, austere and solemn, overlooking the ocean, and +with a limitless horizon. The man who was buried here must have had +imagination if he chose the spot for himself beforehand. The tearing +winds shriek over the ragged furze and mighty stones, and howl in the +crevices of the monument above him; the great black clouds roll in, and +the whole country is drowned in a blinding squall of hail; the sky +clears, patches of brilliant blue appear, and the sun strikes down on +the dripping stones, while all the little rills and streams race down +the soaking ground and over the roads in the wayward manner of Cornish +streams; and still the old chieftain sleeps on, lulled by all the music +of Nature in this wild outpost which England thrusts into the sea. + +The road surface round here is tolerably good. Much of it is granite, +and the tiny crystals glitter in the sun like diamonds, and quickly dry +up after the whirlwinds of rain that pitilessly descend in winter time. +The road winds along around the desolate hills, keeping mostly rather +far inland, and it passes by acres of rough land covered with the +wayward gorse, where small, fox-red cows take an interest in the +stranger. In spring primroses grow to enormous sizes, with leaves as +large as those of foxgloves; and the foxgloves in their turn decorate +the hedges, rearing their tall spikes of magenta-coloured bells in +profusion. Pigs abound, and great grey sheep-dogs, of the Old English +bobtail breed, come shyly to make friends. And everywhere in +irrepressible masses is the furze, the quick-burning fuel of the poor, a +godsend here where wood is so precious. + +Almost due west of Penzance is the mining region, where until lately +there was great activity, now comparatively still. St. Just is the +centre of this district; but it is not what one would expect in a +mining town. Right in the heart of it, where now the children make their +playground, is a great amphitheatre, one of the best known and preserved +of the many like it that at one time held hundreds of Cornish folk to +watch the open-air plays that delighted their hearts until Wesley's +teaching made them think them wrong. After that they served as +meeting-places for Wesley himself in many instances. The church, with +some peculiarly quaint frescoes, and the Plan-an-guare, the plane as it +is called locally, give St. Just a character of its own. Down one +terrific hill, falling at an angle that no one unless he lived in +Cornwall would dare to make a road, and up another, is Botallack, with +its well-known mine, now stilled, and the taint of the red tin is felt +in earth and air for many a mile beyond. + + + + +IV + +FURTHEST WEST AND FURTHEST SOUTH + + +It has been the invariable creed of every writer on Cornwall that +visitors seeing the Land's End for the first time must be disappointed +with it. Disappointment there may be after a very cursory inspection, +but it is evanescent. It only lasts as one approaches across the flat +ugly ground where sodden patches of raw earth lie in ridges, and the dun +walls of the unsightly hotel present their dreariest side to the +newcomers. Particularly is this so in the height of the season, when +public vehicles of every variety and degree of manginess decorate the +landscape and the picture-postcard craze is at its strongest. + +But those who stay long enough to see the place quietly or those who +visit it in the winter when there are few disturbers of the peace, tell +another story. + +The reef of broken and pinkish tinged granite, decorated by weird +streaks of brilliant yellow lichen, is frequented by "guides" who point +out fancy resemblances to faces in the weather carven rocks. The reef is +small; there is not much that is grand about it; but if one sits there +while the sun sinks, a glowing ball, into the sea exactly opposite, and +the ruby and diamond points of the lighthouses flash out far and wide, +and perhaps a clear pale sickle moon begins to sharpen in outline in the +fading sky, there is plenty on which to exercise the imagination. The +granite, being split by the action of the weather into long columns, and +divided again horizontally into blocks, gives the impression of a series +of obelisks built up of separate stones. The general effect is rather +like the famous cavern at Staffa. In places however the rocks are split +into such massive and even-edged blocks that it is very difficult to +disentangle the natural from the artificial, and one often imagines +oneself to be gazing at the ruins of a castle which is really only some +cloven cliff hammered by natural elements and not by tools of man's +making. + +On the seaward side the hotel lounge has been carried out in a great +bay, and from the sweep of windows there are no less than four +lighthouses to be seen, with their varying flashes. The bright ruby +spot is the Longships Light on a grisly reef so near that it looks as if +you could throw a stone upon it, though really two miles away. It is +only red on the landward side. Ships usually pass outside this reef +unless the sea is very calm, for it is a dangerous coast. It seems +hardly believable that at times the men in the lighthouse are held up +for two months by the swell which prevents their relief arriving, but so +it is, and even on the calmest days it is no easy matter to land. The +Longships is a reef composed of several rocky islets, some of which are +connected by bridges and in fine weather the men can walk about and even +fish, but in rough weather the great doors in the tower are closed for +days together. When the swell comes, rolling from out the profoundly +disturbed depths of the Atlantic and heralding a storm, the sheeted foam +flies high above the lantern and often the last vision one has before +night drops like a black curtain is that white froth of breaking foam +around the glowing red eye in the tower. Further out to the south is the +well-known Wolf Lighthouse, and far to the west that on the Scilly +Isles. + +Even in the depth of winter, on clear white frosty moonlight nights, +there are those who motor down to see the Land's End by moonlight, but +usually the "trip" element occupies a very small part of the day and of +the year; and for the greater part of the time the place is strangely +solitary. When the storms beat on the coast, driven by the wild west +winds, the boom and clangour is heard as far inland as Lamorna Cove. + +The chief characteristic of the weather is its uncertainty; there are +clear bright intervals when the sea and sky are of electric blue and the +headlands are etched out on them in black, and then all in a moment the +lowering wall of storm comes up visibly; the outlines of everything are +obliterated in one sweep, and a squall of hail as big as peas shrieks +around, whitening the ground, then flies on in its mad course, to be +succeeded by the joyous freshness of the clean-washed air and the glory +of the vivifying sun. In winter time it is not safe to go two hundred +yards from the hotel without a mackintosh, and yet just across the waste +of heather along the little sheep tracks on the slopes, what wonderful +views are to be seen in the steep-sided bays filled with a smother of +foam, where the stones being driven irresistibly against one another +grind off their harshnesses. + +It is a terrible coast, and nearly always, even on the calmest day, +when the wolves might be supposed to be sleeping, the sudden baring of a +fang in the whitening of some jagged rock, a moment before invisible, +shows the lurking danger. + +But what perhaps catches the imagination most sharply at that "raw edge" +is the tradition of the Land of Lyonnesse, lying between here and the +Scilly Isles. + +There seems very little foundation for this poetic fable and though, as +already said, the roots and trunks of trees have been found in Penzance +Bay and it is possible there may have been some landslip on a large +scale in prehistoric times, there seems geologically nothing to point to +a complete submergence of miles of land at the extremity of Cornwall. +Tradition speaks of a land covered with villages and churches--indeed, +no less than a hundred and forty churches--all buried in the shifting +water by reason of one great convulsion, and Tennyson has placed here +the scene of Arthur's rule and his last battle: + + "For Arthur, when none knew from whence he came, + Long ere the people chose him for their King, + Roving the trackless realms of Lyonnesse, + Had found a glen, grey boulder and black tarn." + +And again: + + "So all day long the noise of battle roll'd + Among the mountains by the winter sea; + Until King Arthur's Table, man by man, + Had fall'n in Lyonnesse about their lord." + +The Scilly Isles are supposed to be the tops of the hills belonging to +the lost land and so are the Seven Stones, a jagged ridge midway between +them and Land's End, whence in fine weather the isles can be seen as +faint cirrus clouds lying along the horizon. But though this is the +nearest point to the islands, they can only be reached by steamer from +Penzance, the _Lyonnesse_ going and returning alternate days. There is +no harbour at Land's End and the cruel fanged rocks would make the +direct voyage very dangerous, so the journey has to be lengthened out +from Penzance. + +As for the islands themselves, those who brave the crossing come away +with strangely mixed feelings according to their temperament. If they go +bathed in the glamour of _Armorel of Lyonnesse_, by far the best of +Besant's books, they will see the romance and charm of these windswept +bits of rock. If they are there in the spring they will visit with +delight the acres of carefully tended flowers guarded by high thick +walls and hedges from the ever sweeping western winds; if a little +later in the nesting time of gull and guillemot, razor-bill, puffin and +cormorant, say the first week in June, then the sights of bird-life will +well repay them. They may even find the nesting-places of the tern, +shearwater, or such voracious pirates as the kestrel and peregrine, or +the stormy petrel; but this will be in the outlying islets, as the +greater traffic and population of late years has driven many of the shy +birds away. The halcyon days when sea and sky are one soft blue dome and +the water washes and laps around the rocky shores give a glimpse of +peace and remoteness such as one might imagine form part of heaven. The +masses of cloud piled up in towering grandeur, the vast horizons and +even the beat of the sudden squalls will find response in some people. +But there are few save islanders born and bred who can revel in the lash +and struggle and constant menace of the black winter days. + +Surrounded by water on all sides the temperature is kept equable, hence +it is that narcissus, violets, anemones, daffodils and other of the +earliest spring flowers can be grown in the open and sent to be +delivered in London weeks before the home counties can produce them. + +It is rather curious that the name by which the whole group is known +should not be that of the largest, or even of one of the largest, +islands. Scilly is a mere rock rising from the sea to the west of +Bryher, it is flat and cleft in two by a deep chasm through which the +water runs. The currents are very strong and it is not often a landing +is possible here. St. Mary's, the principal island, is the one where the +steamers arrive, at Hugh Town. This name has not any authentic +derivation, though it has been suggested it may be connected with the +word "huer," to call or cry out. Tresco is next in size, and in summer a +steam launch runs across to it from St. Mary's. Here lives the +proprietor of the Scillies, Mr. Dorrien-Smith, in a comfortable house +amid a perfectly glorious garden, in which are the ruins of an old Abbey +built in the time of Henry I. There is some fine rock-scenery to be +found in the outlying islets, if one takes the trouble to look for it in +a boat, and some of the views of the scattered islands seen from a +height on a clear day can never be forgotten. + +To the north of Land's End is the sweeping curve of Whitesand Bay +leading up to Cape Cornwall. It is possible to bathe off the shore with +certain precautions. Directly inland is the little village of Sennen, +which for many years boasted "The First and Last" house in England; and +down on the shore Sennen Cove, where the families of the lighthouse men +live, and the Atlantic cable comes ashore. + +Whitesand Bay has historical memories; Athelstan sailed from here to +conquer the Scilly Isles after his sanguinary victory at St. Buryan. It +was a bold undertaking considering the means at his disposal. The shore +of Whitesand, which is low-lying on an otherwise iron-bound coast, has +naturally been the landing-place for those who arrived at this extremity +of England. Stephen disembarked here when he first came to the country +from France and so did Perkin Warbeck. In the centre of the bay the +granite and slate meet and mingle. + +No other place can vie with the Cornish coast for curious and suggestive +names. We have here Vell-an-Dreath meaning "The Mill on the Sand." All +traces of the mill have disappeared, but the tradition of it lingers. It +was kept by a father and son, it is said, who found themselves attacked +by a roving gang of Spaniards who had landed to harry the country. The +native Cornishmen made a stout resistance, and finally escaped the back +way under protection of a cloud of smoke, carrying stout sacks of flour +on their backs to protect them from bullets. The Spaniards destroyed the +mill, which was never rebuilt. + +Close to the southern end of the bay is a detached rock called The Irish +Lady, which with some imagination may be likened to a mincing dame +flouncing out to sea. Such rocks are not at all uncommon in Cornwall, +one, very well known, is Queen Bess at Bedruthan Steps. Towering above +the lady on the mainland is Pedn Men Dhu, Black Rock Headland, a pile of +massive granite. Further along we find Carn Barges, the Kites' Rock; +Carn Towan, the Rock on the Sandhills; Polpry Cove, the Clay-Pit; Carn +Leskez, the Rock of Light, said to be where the Druids kindled their +sacred fires, but much more likely the place where faked beacon fires +were lit to lure ships to destruction in the bad old days! Close off +Cape Cornwall are the Brisons, two fearful shattering piles, and near +them Priests' Cove, right under the headland. + +The coast to the south of Land's End is even more interesting, and if +any of those who say they are "disappointed" with Land's End could walk +round here they would soon recover. The coast-line is serrated by +innumerable small bays like deep bites and in each one some wild and +strange rock-forms imitating natural objects can be seen. We pass at +first by Carn Greab, Cock's Comb Rock, where a conspicuous group +includes the Armed Knight, and then we come to a tiny island called Enys +Dodman, which has a great archway scored through it by the action of the +waves. Pardenick Point rises perpendicularly about two hundred feet from +the sea; the curious "pillar" appearance of the rocks is very striking, +and not less so the reddish veins which run like streams sheer down the +granite in places. Anyone lingering here, as the sun sets and the +shadows grow long, can make out all sorts of weird shapes and haunting +faces in the cliffs, as odd as any mediaeval artist's conceptions +embodied in gargoyles. We pass Mozrang Pool, the Maid's Pool, and then +the Red Rock, and the Chilly Carn; next a chasm called by the poetical +name of "The Song of the Sea," and so to the "Cove under the Vale." All +along the coast, those who have time to explore it will find strange +sea-caverns, logan-stones, natural arches and other fantastic forms. + +Then we reach Tol Pedn, where is quite the grandest scenery in the +whole district. Approaching from the landward side on an autumn or late +summer day the heights are seen covered by a wonderful carpet of purple +or crimson and gold. It is made by the intermingling of the dwarf gorse +and the heather, which are so interwoven they could not be separated. As +the result of this close embrace these two plants, both small, form a +gorgeous tapestry of colour, and the vast heights and sounding hollows +of the headland are glorified by them. Tol Pedn means Holed Headland and +evidently refers to the Funnel, a great chasm a hundred feet in depth +and eight feet in diameter, cut out as if by a giant cheese-scoop down +to the roaring sea. Below, the tide scours the bottom at every return, +and at low tide it is possible to enter from the beach. In early spring +the close sward on the higher reaches is starred with little blue +squills. Great care must be taken not to slip and lose one's balance on +this short turf, because in Cornwall one is never fenced in by puny +supports. The Chair Ladder usually attracts much wonder, it is an +immense pile of upright blocks. The whole scarping and shaping of the +cliff is vigorous and original, and looking down from above into one +gully after another you can see the gulls float in effortless dignity +over the measureless gulfs below. + +Just round the corner from Tol Pedn is to be found one of the quaintest +little fishing villages, Porthgwarra, where a tunnel has been cut +through the solid rock to allow the fishermen to get down to their +boats. The rocks are fine red granite, and with the brilliant blue of +the sea on a sunny day and the yellow ochres of sand and sail there are +"ready-made" pictures at every turn. Looking out from the darkness of +the tunnel the colours are enhanced. One of the most attractive points +about the many mighty caverns along the coast are the clean-cut, +brilliantly clear pictures to be seen from their dark interiors. + +All these and many other curious and fantastic things may be found by +those sure of eye and foot. For one of the greatest charms of Cornwall +is its variety and unexpectedness, at all events as regards the coast. + +For a hundred people who go to Land's End it is safe to say only one +visits the Lizard. Though the usual run of tourist conveyances have +found it out, it is more difficult to get to than the western extremity, +and is a little out of the way. Yet in the opinion of those who have +seen both the Lizard beats even the fantastic scenery to the southward +of Land's End. + +The approach is nothing short of lamentable in its dulness. Except for +an oasis about half-way across Goonhilly Downs, the wide, flat, +dead-alive plateau occupying the heel of Cornwall, there is nothing to +note. Even right on to the end the feeling of dismay grows. The meek +green fields carry one down almost to the shore, for though we have come +across a bit of heath _en route_ which recalls how repeatedly we have +been told that the _Erica vagans_ grows here and nowhere else, we leave +this behind and wind once more between grass fields toward the dreary +little cluster of houses called Lizard-town, which looks not unlike a +forsaken coast-guard station from the distance. To reach the famous +Housel Bay Hotel we must branch off before getting to the town, and +following a lane which looks as if it led merely to a lighthouse, we +come quite suddenly on the building, facing due south in the centre of a +little bay. Not until we have passed the hotel and got out to the cliff +paths does the surprising interest of the scenery begin to unveil +itself, and the orderly sanity of the fields, which vexed our eager +souls, is forgotten. On the two horns of the bay stand the flashing +lighthouse and Lloyds' signal station. We are here at the most +southerly, as we have just been at the most westerly, point of our +country. + +The cliffs are carved into many fantastic and bewildering shapes. Before +we have got very far we are brought up short by an immense hole or +funnel, cut clean-lipped from the short turf, and just the shape of one +of those paper twists shop-keepers make for sweets. It is much larger in +circumference than the Funnel at Tol Pedn. No railing protects the edge; +people at the Lizard are supposed to have their wits about them. By +lying down flat and approaching cautiously, we can peer over and see +that here also the sea runs in on the floor. This is one of the cliff +vagaries made within the memory of man. On the night of February 19, +1847, the hole appeared suddenly, yet so quietly that no one knew of it +until it was seen. There had apparently been a shell or roof which had +given way as the sea scooped out the earth from below. Yet that such a +sudden catastrophe is possible shows how little we know about what goes +on under our feet. + +A little further on a column of spray shoots in fluffy steam from a +blow-hole every few seconds after the last billow has fallen away. Near +it a huge boulder perched on a great plinth balances at an uncertain +angle. How did it get there? At every turn "chairs" of stone extend a +silent invitation to us to seat ourselves and gaze at the ships passing +and repassing in a silent and endless procession. + +The Serpentine rock streaked with hornblende, felspar, slate and +green-stone, shows changing colours like a pigeon's breast. It weathers +into columns and pillars and arches and caverns, as if on purpose to +delight the hearts of children of a larger growth, too old for spades +and pails. Only a mile or two away at Kynance Cove these wonders come to +perfection in the torn and twisted rocks lying in masses on the shore, +which is covered with shining sand in summer but scoured black and stony +by the rough seas in winter. By Caerthillian Cove we may pass to +Pentreath beach and Yellow Carn and thus to Kynance. At places the +cliffs have broken away forming a natural quarry and here come the +people from the little town above, and search for well-coloured +fragments of serpentine to fashion into candlesticks, and brooches, and +ash-trays to sell to tourists. Dark red is a rare and popular colour +and dark green also; chocolate with splashes of green, like variegated +marble, is often seen. There is little fishing to be done on this wild +rigid coast, and beyond some rough farming and their "serpentine" shops, +it is hard to see what the population live upon. The rocks at the Lizard +are split more often horizontally than vertically, and instead of being +sharp upright columns as the granite fragments are at Land's End, these +are broad lumps giving a curious sense of steady untiring watching with +uplifted heads. + +[Illustration: CAERTHILIAN COVE] + +One interesting point about rock scenery is that it changes so little in +the course of years that the impressions of those who saw it long ago +are still not out of date. There are two very simple little books, two +generations old now, but full of charm when read on the spot, Mrs. +Craik's _An Unsentimental Journey in Cornwall_ and the Rev. C. A. +Johns's _A Week at the Lizard_, 1848. Mrs. Craik, who wrote _John +Halifax, Gentleman_, came here with two nieces near the end of her life, +and gives a picture of Lizard-town which might stand to-day. With a +horse and "shay" they visited the various points of interest along the +coast, climbed into the dank caves and mounted the slippery weed-strewn +rocks. It was a bold journey to make at the time, and their taste was in +advance of most of their contemporaries who had not learnt to delight in +the grand and desolate places of the earth. The Rev. C. A. Johns is well +known as the author of _Wild Flowers of the Field_, which ran through +numerous editions and is the most popular of his many natural-history +books. + +Not many days after reading Mrs. Craik's book at the Lizard, I was in +the light railway running to Newquay in the north of the county and saw +a girl of about sixteen, deeply absorbed in a book, opposite to me. It +was bound in the dingy maroon cloth so beloved by the librarians of Free +Libraries, and peeping over I saw it was _John Halifax_, thus nearly +sixty years after publication giving as much pleasure as when it was +new! If the good lady could have known it, how pleased she would have +been! + +When the sun falls over the shoulder of the cliff in the west, the +revolving light from the lighthouse begins to flash out with a regular +monotonous beat on its long night vigil. At any time after dark one can +see the huge pencil of light darting round, striking the white signal +station opposite, losing itself in the sea and so returning. There is +something awe-inspiring in that regular sweep of pulsing light every +three minutes, hour after hour, carrying its silent sure message to +those at sea. If anything happened to the Lizard light what terrible +wrecks there would be on this jagged coast! + +Nearly as impressive is it to catch by night the glimmer of the Morse +code flashing from ships which are revealing their names and journeys to +those ever-vigilant watchers in the signal station as they pass. What +stories that signal station might tell of the journeyings to and fro, of +the ships conveying food and clothes and necessaries from port to port! +Here is a vessel bound from Galveston to Havre with cotton, she is +British; about every second or third that come by is laden with coals +from Cardiff; here is another from the other direction, bringing fruit +from the Mediterranean to Liverpool, with all the beating up the Irish +Channel yet to face; passing it, and doubtless hailing it in transit, is +another Liverpool ship carrying a general cargo to Italy, and when times +are peaceful and there are no scares from submarines, the great American +liners from Plymouth swell the number with their enormous bulk. It is a +regular, and, if one may use the expression, a well-beaten track around +this great blunt headland, and it is small wonder the enemy submarines +haunted it to find their prey, as men wait hidden beside the tracks of +wild animals in the jungle. + + + + +V + +KING ARTHUR'S LAND + + +Tintagel can never disappoint anyone. The very spirit of romance is in +the place. If you have climbed across the narrow neck that links the +"island" to the main, and passing through the low doorway of the ruined +castle, have crossed the space surrounded by the broken wall, and so +gone out again to the plateau above, you will find yourself among the +sheep and cut off from the world, apparently swinging in space. There +are great mounds all around, in shape like graves, covered with coarse +tufty grass munched by the ragged sheep whose hair is blown into knots +by the ceaseless wind. It takes very little imagination to picture that +around lie the bodies of a mighty host of warriors, at peace at last in +sound of the booming sea which clashes in its mad rush through the +caverns deep beneath, with the wind whistling over them boisterously, or +crooning low even on the mildest summer day. + +It is quite likely, as experts say, that the present ruins date only +from the twelfth or thirteenth century. Arthur may never have set foot +on the tufty grass of the cube-shaped island; there may never, for that +matter, have been an Arthur at all, but lying in the grass above the +slaty ruins and looking through the serrated arch to the onyx-green sea, +fretting the black rock, all these doubts seem simply silly and fly away +light as the spume flying inland in great balls. + +The spirit of Arthur and his fighting men lives here still. It may +possibly have been summoned up by the thoughts of the countless host of +pilgrims who have come expectantly to the most beloved of all the +shrines of British history. For thoughts if repeated may conjure up +visions. + +And the vision of Tintagel, that needs no seeking, but comes pressing on +you as insistently as the sea-laden air, is one of old-time warriors +impregnably ensconced. With their castle standing on the very edge of +the gulf--narrower then than now--which separated them from the +mainland. Guarded by a drawbridge crossing that sharp space so that +three men could well hold back an host. Protected on all other sides by +the sheer cliff, with a fortification at one point where it was just +possible to land. Having above a wide plateau from which to gaze seaward +and landward far over the rolling slopes of the country, along the +deeply broken coast with its sugar-loaves of detached rock, or else out +to the shifting ocean, they were in an enviable situation. They had a +well of water on the very summit of their stronghold, and pasture for +sheep by the dozen to insure plenty of mutton. They could laugh to scorn +any such enemies as that age could bring against them. + +There are several such striking vantage points along the Cornish coast, +one at Tol Pedn, another at Treryn Dinas where is the Logan Rock, and +there are signs they have all been utilized, but none of them had the +superb advantages of Tintagel with its wide level of turfy heights, and +the living water flowing from the heart of the rock. + +There is no doubt that some such man as Arthur existed, though it is +hardly likely he was the model of refined sensitiveness and perfect +chivalry romancers have made him out to be. At any rate he was a gallant +warrior if the old chroniclers are to be believed, and it is probable +that his standard of conduct was high above his age, or the legend of +his virtue would not have clung to him so persistently. The notion that +such a king in Cornwall would neglect such a position may be dismissed +as absurd, and so we may take it that Arthur fortified himself here on +the heights, from whence he ranged far and wide, even so far as +Scotland, to win his victorious battles. And all proof seems to point to +it that he met his death in Scotland far from the beating of his beloved +savage waves in Cornwall. + +All this coast is slaty shale; there is a miniature quarry just away to +the west round the next headland, and the materials lying to hand were +not likely to be neglected in days when transport was more of a +consideration than now. So the crumbling walls which cling to the cliff +are of slate, sharp and jagged, and inside the arches present a serrated +edge like a crocodile's teeth. These arches are pointed which shows they +were of later date than Arthur, and the rest of the masonry can hardly +be said to have any style. The first mention of Tintagel in public +records is in 1305, and in 1337 the castle was fairly habitable, at any +rate that part of it standing on the mainland. We can imagine the +original castle, which this one superseded, to have been much the same +only with heavy round arches. So we can picture the past without great +difficulty. And lying in peace we can repeople the place with the +gorgeous figures of Tennyson's Idylls, much better known to most people +than _La Mort d'Arthur_. The constant splash of the waves and the steady +cropping of the sheep are broken now and again by a Woof! exactly like +the growl of an angry beast. This is caused by a blow-hole in the cliff +from which, when the wind is strong and onshore, the spout of water is +sent out forty feet or more. + +Right beneath us is a cavern cut through the solid rock from side to +side, and into this the sea scours at its height, the breakers from each +end meeting with a shock in the middle. The rocks, which are so black +and frigid outside, are rounded within, and coloured a strange +sea-green, with almost a wan look, while the floor is composed of +myriads of flat stones, round and oval, all sizes, from a sixpence to a +soup-plate, making a natural pavement easy to the tread. The beach at +the mouth of the cave is the same, armoured by myriads and myriads of +flat smooth rounded stones lying so closely together as to give the +appearance of a dragon's scales; it would not be hard to conjure up +imaginary dragons here for the cave is by tradition "Merlin's Cave," and +magicians and dragons are always regarded as contemporaneous. These +plates of slate, for they are nothing else, have had all the angles +scoured off them by the scourging surge. The village people collect +them, picking out all that are of one size, to form neat pavements. You +also see them set like some strange mosaic on the fronts of the houses, +stuck in mortar, and making a deep frieze; the effect is not beautiful. + +But the ruined castle on the island is not all that remains of man's +handiwork here, for high on the mainland, on the great boss of earth +fronting the island, are the remains of another castle, now falling +piecemeal into the gulf below as the cliff crumbles. Some hold that the +"island" was originally an island in reality, and that the slender neck +of rock now linking it to the mainland is the result of cliff-falls and +debris. But whether that was so or not the purpose of the landward +castle can only be guessed. It may have been an outwork, though that +seems rather unnecessary. Over it hover screaming jacks, who love the +sheltering crevices of artificial walls, and occasionally may be seen a +red-legged and beaked Cornish chough which here alone on the Cornish +coast is not extinct, and is supposed by the children to re-embody the +spirit of King Arthur. + +Arthur lived about A.D. 500. His story is so overlaid with legend that +it is difficult to find any grains of truth concerning him. Tennyson +makes him of miraculous birth, cast upon the shore by a wave at +Tintagel, of which the earlier name was Dundagil, but even amid the +romantic surroundings of Tintagel we cannot swallow that bit of poetic +licence. + +Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, went to pay homage to the King of Britain, +Uther Pendragon of glorious name, at the noble city of Winchester, and, +like a foolish man, took his beautiful wife Igerna with him. Uther kept +his eye on the lady and presently the unhappy husband, having returned +to his domain of Cornwall, was besieged in the strong castle of +Damelioc, not far from Tintagel. Damelioc, represented to this day by an +earthwork, is on the road running through Delabole to Padstow, or more +correctly Rock, and is about eight miles from Tintagel. Meantime, +Gorlois had left his wife in Tintagel, probably thinking his own life +would be safer if he were apart from her, for he must have been well +aware of all the consequences his foolish indiscretion had brought +about. This did not save him; he was slain, and meantime the British +King obtained access to Tintagel and wooed the lady. + +In due time Arthur was born, and succeeded to the chieftainship or +Dukedom of Cornwall, apparently without question, and proved himself one +of the strongest and bravest rulers that ever held high position. His +arms were everywhere triumphant, and about a dozen victories are placed +to his credit, but he fell at last, fighting his traitorous nephew +Mordred somewhere about the year 542, when Mordred was slain and Arthur, +mortally wounded, carried from the battlefield to die. This was the +Battle of Camulodunum and it was for long supposed to have been fought +quite near Tintagel, close by the present town of Camelford, the +similarity of names giving colour to the error. Besides there was a very +fierce battle fought near Camelford in some remote time, and the +tradition of it is strong to this day. The place is marked by Slaughter +Bridge, to be found by going half a mile down a side road from the +station. It is a small bridge over a tiny stream, and it is supported by +great blocks of stone instead of piers. If you linger there a girl comes +from a rough shanty near and says she will show you King Arthur's tomb. +A short scramble takes you down steep banks where tree-trunks grow out +horizontally turning up at an angle to reach the light, and brambles +and creepers cling thickly, while the long hart's-tongue ferns dip in +the running water, floating down stream like strange seaweed; then you +see a great monolith with a Latin inscription, of which the only word +still decipherable is "filius." You point out to the little guide that +in all probability King Arthur was not buried here at all but in +Scotland where the evidence shows that the Battle of Camulodunum was +fought, and she makes no objection provided the fee is forthcoming. + +No doubt some great chieftain was laid here after the battle, where +thousands were killed, so that a thousand years later the bridge retains +the name of Slaughter Bridge, but it is likely the event took place long +after Arthur's death. For its date is generally now acknowledged to be +the year 823 in the time of King Egbert. It was between the Britons and +Saxons, and history does not say which was victorious. It may have been +a drawn fight, in which case the ground was strewn with bodies and the +waters of the stream dyed crimson all for nothing. + +It is in later times that the dignity of King has been conferred on +Arthur, and some suppose he was King of Britain; but it seems more +likely that he gained slices of territory spasmodically as the result +of fighting, and was really only ruler in his own corner of the country +continuously, though his battles spread his name far and wide. There +were so many rulers in those days and the country was so cut up that it +is not likely he was able to assert himself supremely, and the conquests +of Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Gaul and Spain attributed to him are pure +legends. In a very interesting little book called _King Arthur in +Cornwall_ by W. Howship Dickinson, the case is put clearly:-- + +"The evidence which is wanting with regard to Arthur's battle on the +Camel comes to light on the Firth of Forth. There is reason to suppose +that tradition did not err in the fatal association of Arthur and +Mordred, though the place of the last scene was not Cornwall but +Scotland. The name Camlan which has been freely given by later writers +to the supposed battle on the Camel, is not to be found there, nor, so +far as I can ascertain, in Cornwall. + +"Skene and Stuart Glennie maintain with much converging evidence that +Camlan is Camelon on the river Carron in the valley of the Forth, where +it is said are the remains of a Roman town. Here, according to Scotch +tradition Arthur and Mordred met. We have evidence which appears to be +sufficient that Mordred was King of the Picts, or, as he is sometimes +termed, King of Scotland, and the head of a confederacy of Picts, Scots +and Saxons, or, as some authorities have it of Picts, Scots and renegade +Britons. With this composite army he gave battle to Arthur and his +faithful British force, in which the latter were defeated and Arthur +slain. + +"It is worth noting as in favour of the Scottish location of the battle +that Geoffrey [of Monmouth] who places it on the Camel states Mordred's +force to have consisted of Picts and Scots. It is surely improbable that +Arthur could have been confronted in Cornwall by a great army of these +northern savages.... It may be added that an earthwork with double lines +of circumvallation in the neighbouring valley of the Tay now known as +Barry Hill, is designated by tradition as Mordred's castle." + +Where Arthur was buried will ever remain an open question; Glastonbury +long claimed the honour but that has for some time been discredited by +those who have gone into the evidence. The romantic account of his +"passing," as given by Malory and Tennyson is very fine. It tells how +Arthur, wounded to death, is carried down to the waterside and gives +his sword, Excalibur, to Sir Bedivere to throw into the water, and how +the knight, after some hesitation, does as he wishes, when a hand and +arm arise out of the surface of the lake, brandish the sword three times +and disappear. Then a little barge appears and carries the dying King +off to the Vale of Avallon from whence he will one day return. The grand +myth about Excalibur is generally said locally to have taken place at a +dreary little pool known as Dozmare, a lonely tarn, flat and bleak, +fringed by reeds, on a tableland several hundred feet above the sea near +Brown Willy, and on this assumption many a persevering tourist has paid +it a visit. But Tennyson in describing the scene took a much more +beautiful place as his model, for he describes Looe Pool which could by +no possibility be associated with the tragedy. This is close to Helston +at the entrance to the Lizard Peninsula. It is two or three miles long, +and formed by the widening out of the little river Cober. The water +formerly escaped into the sea but gradually a bar was built up, and +there was an old custom by which the Corporation of Helston had to +present the lord of the manor with two leather purses, each containing +three halfpence, in consideration of which they were then allowed to +cut through the bar, but that has long been discontinued. The bar is now +a mighty thing where great stones are hurled by powerful waves and even +on a calm day the thunder of the surf breaking on it is heard for miles. +The water of the lake is otherwise drained. Its banks are well wooded. + +In Tennyson's _Mort d'Arthur_ when Sir Bedivere, last survivor of the +Knights of the Round Table, carried his mortally wounded ruler from the +stricken field-- + + "On one side lay the ocean, and on one + Lay a great water, and the moon was full." + +And when Sir Bedivere, charged with the mission of throwing the magic +sword Excalibur into the water, left the dying King:-- + + "From the ruin'd shrine he stept + And in the moon athwart the place of tombs, + Where lay the mighty bones of ancient men, + Old Knights, and over them the sea-wind sang + Shrill, chill, with flakes of foam. He stepping down + By zigzag paths and juts of pointed rock, + Came on the shining levels of the lake." + +Thence twice he returned faithless, his mission unperformed, to +report:-- + + "I heard the ripple washing in the reeds, + And the wild water lapping on the crag." + +All around Tintagel there are innumerable references to King Arthur. In +fact it might be said that only the devil is more popular in this +respect than Arthur, for his name occurs perhaps a little more +frequently. Mr. Dickinson says: "We have King Arthur's Hall, Hunting +Seat, Bed, Quoit, Cups and Saucers, Tomb and Grave." The cups and +saucers are the round holes weathered in the stones on the summit of +Tintagel island. The grave is a sepulchral mound lying within Warbstowe +Bury, one of the largest British camps in Cornwall. This is not very far +north of Boscastle. It is a vast circular mound with a sort of crater on +the top, and in the middle of this is another mound, which has been +called a Viking's grave and the Giant's grave as well as King Arthur's. + +Another place much associated with King Arthur, which cannot be passed +over, is the earthwork known as Cardinham Castle about four miles east +of Bodmin. This has been identified by good authorities with Caradigan +where Arthur held his court, to which there are many references in +Arthurian legends. + +On the other side of Tintagel, on the road between Camelford and +Wadebridge, and not four miles from the latter place, is Killibury +Castle identified with Kelliwic. Arthur was "lord of Kelliwic," and +these associations all taken together carry a fair amount of evidence as +to the presence of the chivalrous ruler in this district. + +Whatever else is doubtful we cannot but be sure that Arthur's existence +and reputation contributed in no small degree to the preservation of the +men of the British race in this corner of the island when they were in +danger of being pushed back into the sea by the oncoming Saxons, and it +is to this that Cornwall owes in some ways its distinctive character, +preserving racial features that are found nowhere else. The men of +Ireland and of Wales are related certainly to the original Cornish but +there is a distinct cleavage. Arthur may have made his fame known right +across England, his victories may have carried him to the capital, +Winchester, and beyond, but it is certain that his name will ever be +associated most strongly with this far corner of the country where he +was born and where he had his homeland associations. And these +associations, being the very earliest of the British race surviving, +serve to attract from far our Colonial brothers and our American +cousins; Tintagel will never lack visitors. + +But with the castle we have not exhausted by any means all that is worth +seeing here. + +Leaving the castle on the mainland we come very quickly to the "little +grey church on the windy hill" with its graveyard wall almost swallowed +up in rising grass and turf, and some of the tombstones heavily +buttressed against the prevailing winds. The church tower must have +formed a mark for generations to men of the sea. It stands up straight +and bleak with never a tree to hide it. The entrances to the graveyard +are over a pavement of round stone bars placed a few inches apart so +that the cattle dare not cross them for fear of slipping in between with +their narrow hoofs. There are many marks of great age inside the +building and the grey stone walls, that have been many times restored, +have heard the strong west winds whistling round them from the sea and +moaning the tale of the wrecks on the coast for many generations. + +All along this coast are steep descents and strange rock freaks. To the +north, across the gully leading down to Tintagel Castle, there is a +mighty fracture which has split asunder a huge angle of rock, that looks +as if it only needed a giant push to thrust it back into the fracture, +closely fitting. Yet the chasm below is so sheer and stern that no one +can climb up the sides. The sea-birds know it. It was a happy chance for +them that made this citadel free from the sullying steps of man, and the +steep slopes of brilliant green amid the bare rock surfaces are peppered +all over with them as if with a handful of comfits. + +The wild music of a host of gulls is the bagpipes of the coast, and +arouses the same feelings in the breast of the sea-lover as the pipes do +in that of a Scotsman. It is associated with the sound of the surge and +the deadly thrust and heavy swell at the foot of the tough cliff. These +things tug at the heart of a sea-lover. Lying amid the prickly furze, +sheltered for a moment from the deadly wind-whistle, and gazing across +that unscalable chasm, we have before us that gull-fortress exactly as +it and its kind have been reproduced on the canvas of a well-known +painter many many times. What business has he to do the thing so well +that we are familiarized with the stern beauty of the haunts of the +freest of birds, and feel when we see them in Nature that half the charm +has been forestalled by the blunting of our sensibility? + +It is no easy task to scramble along these rough cliff edges, and one +not to be undertaken by cripples or invalids. + +Not very far is one of the valleys so attractive to the Cornish folk, +who find in them the growth and snugness that contrast so impressively +with their bleak uplands. + +Down the Rocky Valley a stream gushes merrily, tumbling in miniature +waterfalls every few yards, and meeting at last the oncoming wave with a +shock as the sweet water mingles with salt. Everything grows amazingly, +and the huge rectangular rocks high overhead on each side of the gully, +are mostly draped in masses of ivy. They resemble ruins, as Cornish +rocks often do, so that it is frequently most difficult to distinguish +the natural from the artificial. Most people's idea of ivy is neat flat +clinging stuff but here it grows in lumps, yards in thickness, and +decorated with brilliant bunches of black berries in the season when +there is little else to compete with it. In the valley which leads from +the nearest station, Camelford, to Tintagel just such masses may be +seen. The road runs downhill for about four miles, leading mysteriously +into what seems the mouth of a quarry. The sides are covered with +untidy, loose clumps of furze, with mighty stones, and ever and always, +in all corners, moss so rich that it might almost be mistaken for a bed +of miniature ferns. Climb up on one side and you get a glimpse into a +pool, with sides sheer like a hewn cistern, and something so weird and +awful in its onyx depths that it suggests robbery with violence, +suicides, hangings, and anything else gruesome, while the water drips +perpetually from the green lines of slime on its sharp walls. Further on +are the glistening piles of slate from a disused quarry. The real quarry +of Delabole, famous far and wide, is behind, beside the railway, from +which one may look right down into it. The road to Tintagel opens out at +last and then, if we are lucky enough to be going westward at sunset, we +may see suddenly a hazy glow as of a forest fire over all the wide +expanse of sea and sky, and outlined against it the great black lumps of +rock off Trebarwith Strand. + +With Tintagel must be associated Boscastle but a few miles along the +coast to the north, for hardly anyone who visits the one place will fail +to see the other, yet the two are singularly different. Boscastle lies +all down the sides of one of those curious clefts, which would be called +chines or denes elsewhere, and in this instance the drop is +extraordinarily steep. To go sheer down is a feat most people will find +difficult, even on foot, and the new road has been designed to help. +Even that would be accounted steep in any ordinary place. Down, down it +goes into the neck of the funnel, and looks for all the world as if it +were leading to a slate quarry, and then suddenly there opens out one of +the grandest harbours on the coast, with huge sloping cliffs running +alongside and curving round, making the entrance both difficult and +dangerous. With their lovely curves and angles they add greatly to the +vision. From the heights of these cliffs Lundy Island can be seen when +the air is clear. There is an old saw:-- + + "When Lundy is high it will be dry + When Lundy is plain it will be rain + When Lundy is low it will be snow!" + +If the word of the inhabitants is to be trusted the last contingency +must come seldom indeed! + +The name Boscastle comes from Bottreux or Botreaux-castle, spoken +quickly and run together. The site of the castle, which had ceased to +exist by Queen Elizabeth's reign, is still pointed out. The town lies in +two parishes and the church of Forraburry, belonging to the one, stands +well up on the western cliff. + +Care must be taken in climbing about the shore for the cliffs are very +steep. Just to the north or east is Pentargon Bay, cutting deeply into +the land, and near it the Seal Caves though seals seldom come there now. +The waves dash in with tremendous force, especially with a westerly +wind, which is common, when some grand sights may be seen. The black +walls of the slate rock and the white spray of the shattered waves and +the strange blue tint of the sea compose some pictures finer than any +that have yet found their way on to a painter's canvas. + + + + +VI + +THE SANDY BEACHES OF THE NORTHERN COAST + + +What a splendid series of resorts lie along the northern coast of +Cornwall! Take them in order as they come. St. Ives, Newquay, Padstow, +and Bude, leaving aside for the moment the smaller ones, or those like +Boscastle and Tintagel, which stand in a class by themselves and have +been already referred to. All these four have certain characteristics in +common but each has a distinct individuality. That is one of the charms +of Cornwall, nothing is cut to a pattern. By far the best-known is of +course the first mentioned, St. Ives, with its splendid bays or +"porths," with acres of firm sand, and its unrivalled golf-links at +Lelant. It seems odd that a place should be able to face due east in +Cornwall, yet somehow part of St. Ives manages to do it, that part of it +which is on Porthminster Bay and is most favoured by visitors. The town +is curiously placed, for the older part lies on a neck or isthmus +protruding northward between two magnificent bays, and it is the curve +on each side of the neck that makes the east and west side face +respectively Porthminster or Porthmeor. From the east you look straight +across to Godrevy Point and lighthouse. + +[Illustration: ST. IVES] + +St. Ives could never pall because it is not all to be seen or understood +at a glance, and those who stay there longest admit they know it least. +Seen from almost any point there is a view which demands attention, +whether it be the green ruggedness of the island--only technically an +island--against the soft blue of the sea, with the terraced lines of +drab houses rising in tiers in front of it, or the harbour with its +boats and screaming gulls and the old weather-worn church abutting on +it. The prevailing tones of all the buildings are drab and grey; drab +stone, drab stucco, drab paint with pale slate-grey roofs; a little red +brick or tile would be an improvement from an artistic point of view. + +It is an odd feature of Cornwall that however bare and treeless some +parts are, and they could hardly be barer in the Hebrides, yet the towns +are generally warmly encompassed by trees. It is so at Penzance and it +is so here. Woods rise behind the houses, and the richness of the +evergreens makes a shelter even in winter, while the ferns are +inexhaustible in number and of great variety. The season is only for two +months of the year, August and September, during which months the place +is packed and the numerous inhabitants who live upon the yearly godsend +of the "foreigners'" money, are hard put to it to supply accommodation; +but all the year round there is a certain number of visitors who find in +the clean fresh air, the glorious golf-links, second to none, and the +wide views, just what they need. It is true that tiresome change at St. +Erth junction has to be faced before reaching the town, but this is +nothing compared with the days when the junction was the very nearest +point of rail, and the rest of the journey had to be completed by road. +This was altered in 1877 and the innovation was a great factor in the +growth of the town. The road approach from this direction is well graded +and has a good surface, but from the Zennor side so much cannot be said. +A new road is being cut through and the approach improved, but even when +it is completed, there must still be the long and precarious descent +through a squalid part of the town to face. + +[Illustration: A STREET IN ST. IVES] + +The region of the visitors is mainly above the station, facing +Porthminster Bay, where terraces of houses exist for the sole purpose of +providing accommodation, but there is a secondary part above Porthmeor +Bay where rows of neat little houses claim their share. Down on the +harbour front and curving round behind it is the old town with its +indescribable jumble of what can scarcely be called architecture; where +outside staircases, and overhanging first-floor rooms with no visible +means of support, twisted archways and narrow passages are inextricably +mingled. The names of some of these places are quite delightful, +Puddingbag Lane, Chy-an-Chy, Street-an-Garrow, Bunkers' Hill, and the +Digey, while away westward is Clodgy Point. The old inhabitants must +have had a genius for nomenclature. + +St. Ives is the haunt of a colony of artists who rival those at Newlyn, +and what with artists, fishing and visitors, the rest of the inhabitants +manage somehow to live. But the fishing is not what it was; gone are the +golden days when the shoals of pilchards announced by the "huers" from +the Malakoff bastion were sufficient to provide a good livelihood for +the whole town: + +"The pilchards are expected on the coast in October, when their +appearance gives rise to general excitement at a place like St. Ives. +Often have been described the patient watching of the _huers_ on the +cliffs, who with a huge trumpet at length announce their joyful +discovery, and by the waving of bushes telegraph the movements of the +shoal marked by the colour of the sea and its hovering escort of gulls; +the rush of men, women, and children to the shore with shouts of _heva! +heva!_ which is Cornish for the classic _Eureka_; the marshalling of the +seine boats; the shooting of the huge nets; the enclosure of the +luckless victims by myriads; then the hurried orgy of capturing, +pickling, and storing, stimulated by its promise of prosperity to the +whole place." + +Alas! they come but scantily now and there is not much of any sort of +fishing to be had. Though just enough to account for the brown-sailed +boats lying in the harbour and the blue-jerseyed men belonging to them +without which, it may be presumed, the artists would find some paucity +of material and perhaps disappear also. + +St. Ives would not be a Cornish town if it lacked hills and there are +plenty to give exercise to leg muscles; but yet there are some places +almost flat, and one has only to descend to the sands to secure a +perfectly horizontal walk! + +This is not a guide book and there is no need to go into detail about +the ancient church in the very midst of the workers, or the restored +tiny chapel out on the "island" that really once was an island, which +overlooks as in blessing the drying nets that blacken the green of the +grass on the slopes below. The chunk or bite out of this island on the +east is Porthgwidden Cove, and the Foresand runs from here to Penolva +Point whence begin Porthminster Sands. On the hill behind the town rises +the hideous Knill monument where the little girls dance around on July +25 every fifth year, in memory of the conventional alderman who left +such directions in his will, and yet after all is not buried here. + +The impression carried away from St. Ives is of light and freshness and +space, and of width of sand that would attract attention anywhere, but +which here in Cornwall is phenomenal; and of enough modern comfort and +cleanliness to make things very pleasant though within reach lies the +old kernel of the town in piquant contrast. + +The name Porthminster means "church of the sands" and it is curious that +the church should thus be referred to in one of the principal +place-names when the St. Ives' people had originally to go to Lelant +for their services, marryings and buryings. Finding this state of things +intolerable they petitioned for a church of their own and completed it +in 1426. It was built close to the shore for the obvious reason that the +stone of which there was abundance in the neighbourhood, could be more +easily brought by water than overland, but it was not so near the sea as +now, for in the seventeenth century "there was a field between the +churchyard wall and Porth Cocking Rock, and sheep grazed on it." + +The church of Lelant was rapidly being overpowered by the sand which has +swallowed up many ancient oratories or "cells" built low down on the +shore, and it was only saved by the planting and rapid spreading of the +coarse rush grass which binds the surface of the towans together in a +kind of mat and prevents the sand from drifting. + +St. Ives with its eastern aspect is fresh even in the summer, and yet +strange to say not very cold in winter, as the flowering shrubs which +grow so well testify. + +Newquay is not at all like St. Ives; it has no quaint muddled fishing +town behind the "visitors' front," and it lies all along the top of high +cliffs so that its main street is almost level, or at any rate, +level for Cornwall. At one end is Towan Head not unlike St. Ives' +Island, and from thence the bay runs in great scoops or curves cut off +from each other except at low tide. These sandy bays, surrounded by high +cliffs, resemble to some extent those at Broadstairs, and the aspect of +Newquay is the same as that at Broadstairs for it faces mainly north. It +is airy and spacious and light, and its signmark of originality lies not +in its front so much as in its back, the long estuary of the Gannel +River which forms a kind of back-door entrance. But villas and +boarding-houses are rapidly springing up along the Gannel estuary, +facing south, with their backs to Newquay proper, and thereby a bit of +very fine wild land is being spoilt. There are excellent golf-links +along Fistral Bay and huge hotels have sprung up to reap what harvest of +visitors there may be, indeed it is a stock joke to say of Newquay, as +may be said with much truth about Oban, "every second house is an +hotel." + +[Illustration: FROM LELANT TO GODREVY] + +No one who looks at the map even cursorily can fail to note the +extraordinary number of places in Cornwall beginning with the prefix St. +This would be natural in Roman Catholic Ireland but it is whimsical in +Methodistical Cornwall. It is, however, but one of the many signs of the +very ancient history of the place which gives it so much charm. These +reminders keep cropping out constantly among the modern surroundings, as +the granite outcrops on the Bodmin moors and again at Land's End and the +far-lying Scilly Isles, which are too but granite peaks. + +Newquay for all its newness lies in a district of ancient memories. Only +a mile or two away eastward are St. Columb Minor and Major, in fact +Newquay itself is really in the parish of St. Columb Minor. Not far from +St. Columb Major there is one of the most perfect remains of an ancient +castle of the earthwork kind. It is called Castle-an-Dinas, or, locally, +King Arthur's Castle. It is enclosed by three rings of earth and stone, +of which one was probably strengthened by a moat, and the inmost part +covers an acre and a half. But a little way from St. Columb Major on the +other side is St. Mawgan at the end of the Vale of Lanherne, one of the +well-wooded rich Cornish valleys which are so much admired by the +inhabitants. Cornish people go for their picnic-parties and pleasure +days to a valley as most people would to the seaside. + +Newquay Bay is really one crescent or horn of a much larger bay +extending right up to Trevose Headland, and within this sweep lies +Watergate Bay and Bedruthan Steps with its detached rocks and fine +natural scenery. Dividing Watergate and Newquay Bays is Trevalgue Head, +an island connected with the mainland by a footbridge. Here the +sea-pinks flourish abundantly covering all the ground with their frilled +blossoms when in flower. They do well almost anywhere in Cornwall, but +exceptionally well here, and the sheet of pink-tinged ground, caught as +a foreground to a vivid summer sea, is a sight not to be forgotten. The +only thing that spoils the fine cliff effects is that the whole coast +here and northwards is composed of slate--a substance which does not +lend itself to beauty of line or colouring. + +But by far the most "saintly" associations of Newquay are on the other +side. Across the Gannel is Crantock called after St. Crantock, St. +Patrick's great friend, one of the three bishops chosen to revise the +laws of Ireland after the country was converted to Christianity. +Crantock landed here and built his church. A mile or two away on the +shore is the Holy Well, still visited by curious men and maidens, and +within the memory of those living held to have a miraculous power of +making rheumatic men sound again. Holy wells in Cornwall are almost as +plentiful as saints, possibly the one is always associated with the +other as the outward sign of wonder-working power. + +The extraordinary stretch of sand called Perran Beach would be +remarkable anywhere, but it is more remarkable still on the rock-bound +coast of Cornwall. Norden, with unconscious Irishism, describes Perran +as being "almost drowned with the sea sande." The whole region for three +miles in length and as much in breadth is sand alone. Inland a few +plantations of pines struggle to survive just beyond its zone, and the +little slate-roofed houses have a strangely glaring unfinished look; the +hedges which divide up the land show here and there straggly scrubby +bushes all bent violently eastward by the prevailing winds, and in the +dreary corner of sandhills between them and the sea is somewhere to be +found the tiny chapel of St. Piran, which is very interesting because it +is the very earliest ecclesiastical building to be found in the land. It +dates from the eighth or ninth century and is only twenty-five feet +long. It was covered with sand as if buried in a snow drift and for +seven centuries was completely lost. It is probably to this it owes its +preservation. Sir A. Quiller-Couch's irreverent but amusing story +concerning it in his _Delectable Duchy_ is known to most people. St. +Piran, or Kieran as he is called in Irish, came over from Ireland in the +sixth century and settled down here, where many wonders grew up about +his name and his fame spread far and wide. Hundreds of people who never +enter a modern church find themselves strangely impressed by this little +ruined church buried amid the sand dunes with its record of between +thirteen and fourteen hundred years of sanctity behind it. The very name +Perranporth and its neighbour Perranzabuloe are so peculiarly and +distinctly Cornish that they draw the inquisitive to them. The latter +means Perran in the Sand. There is some very curious rock-scenery near +Perranporth, where all the fantastic freaks of caves and natural arches, +so common in Cornwall, can be seen at their best. + +Far deeper than the inlet of the Gannel at Newquay is that of the River +Camel, near the mouth of which Padstow stands. This is an estuary filled +with water at high tide and lying in long melancholy reaches of sand at +low tide. Padstow clusters round a very old-fashioned little port, where +seafaring men congregate and discuss the weather and prices. There is +not a great deal of fishing and only a little general trade, as the +mouth of the river requires ticklish navigation. There is an enormous +hotel standing on a height, and a very attractive church with an old +Elizabethan mansion of the Prideaux-Brune family behind it. But all the +sands are on the other side of the estuary, at Rock, whence the +ferry-boat paddles to and fro about every hour. The rolling dunes have +been utilized for fine golf-links and the all-encroaching sand has done +its best to swallow up the little chapel of St. Enodoc, as it once +succeeded in doing with St. Piran's; so far it has been kept at bay, but +it still drifts in whenever it gets the chance. The links run out in the +direction of Pentire Point, one of the fine coast headlands. It is very +remarkable in Cornwall how constantly names are duplicated, one might +imagine it would give rise to difficulties to find a Pentire Point here, +and an East and West Pentire Point at the mouth of the Gannel near +Newquay, many miles south, and just below this Pentire Point is Hayle +Bay, and opposite Lelant near St. Ives we have again Hayle at the mouth +of the river. Newlyn by Penzance is well known, and Newlyn East south of +Newquay not so well. We have St. Just in Penwith and St. Just in +Roseland. There are doubtless many other instances. + +Of all the four seaside places discussed in this chapter Bude has +perhaps most strongly its own character. Whoever heard of a seaside +place with a sweet-water canal running down the beach? Canals are not +usually associated with beauty and the very word canal is enough to +frighten off many people. But the canal at Bude is quite peculiar. It +only serves the purpose of a harbour for the ketches or fishing-boats +apparently, and a very awkward harbour it makes too when a distracted +ketch harassed by the strong flowing tide and baffled by a teasing wind, +noses this way and that and fails to hit the narrow entrance. Then, a +thing of beauty and distress, she heels over on the beach as the tide +runs out, and the natives gather round to speculate whether she will +"break her back" or not. + +Bude possesses a breakwater too, but the oddest breakwater! For, instead +of curving round like most normal ones, it sticks out straight into the +sea and forms a favourite public promenade, with the added excitement +that in rough weather you may very easily be swept off the hog's back of +rounded stones and dashed to pieces against the rocky masses on either +side. + +Owing to the fact that Bude Bay is on a coast facing sheer west, the +quarter of the wildest winds, the waves drive in with great force +sometimes. The thunder of the surf on the shore may be heard like the +deep pedals of an organ and all the air is hazed by the flying scud. To +see the sun drop like glowing copper straight into the sea, behind ridge +upon ridge of the "wild white horses" is most impressive. The strata of +the rocks on the shore are most weirdly bent and contorted. It is +difficult to conceive the state of convulsion which twisted them into +the shape of innumerable up-ended triangles, one within the other, +fitting like puzzle-boxes, or bent them right back like gigantic hooks. +There is one great layer of rock which looks like the back of a whale, +half a-wash, with all the ribs showing. + +Bude is peculiar in the fact that it has all sorts of scenery combined +in one place. The high downs covered with short grass lie north and +south, and between them is the bay covered at high tide but showing a +fine stretch of easily accessible hard sand at low water; while, as may +be gathered, the rock scenery is well worth seeing. Here, as at so many +places along this coast there are excellent golf-links, in this case in +the very centre of the straggling town on the "Summerleaze." There is a +second golf-links on the heights above Wrangle Point, belonging to the +old Falcon Hotel by the bridge. + +About two miles inland is Stratton, the scene of the victory of Sir +Bevil Grenville over the Roundheads, a victory which was within an ace +of being a defeat. The Earl of Stamford had marched into Cornwall, with +forces of about seven thousand men, and camped at Stratton, where he was +attacked by Sir Bevil with half the number and defeated. Grenville came +of a famous Cornish family which numbered among its members Sir Richard, +who with his little ship the _Revenge_, tackled the great Spanish +galleons and managed to damage many of them before he fell mortally +wounded as is recorded in Tennyson's much-quoted poem! + +Further north still, the very last place of note on the Cornish coast, +is Morwenstow, visited by hundreds of people because of its association +with its one-time vicar, the Rev. Robert Stephen Hawker, a muscular +Christian of a peculiarly pungent personality. His generosity and +kindliness toward his fellow-men was unstinting, but he was withal full +to the brim of eccentricity. He married while still a youth of twenty at +the University, his godmother, who was twenty-one years his senior, and +they lived happily together until her death in extreme old age. Hawker +believed in ghosts and was exceedingly superstitious; there are many +curious stories still current as to his doings, and the life of him by +the notable novelist Baring-Gould is well worth reading. + + + + +VII + +THE INLETS OF THE SOUTH COAST + + +Fowey is perhaps the best known by name of all the Cornish towns. This +is due in some measure to its being the home of Sir A. Quiller-Couch, +who has made it familiar to thousands in his stories of _Troy Town_ and +_The Delectable Duchy_. But people who go to Fowey should be prepared to +find it unlike anything anywhere else. Fowey Harbour is a long narrow +slit penetrating into the land and closed in on each side by very steep +hills which drop down sharply to the water. On the west lies Fowey town +close to the mouth of the harbour, built on the hillside. It consists of +one long narrow street, so constricted that only here and there, where +the houses fall back a little, has it been found possible to drop in a +few feet of pavement, otherwise foot-passengers take their chance with +the traffic. There are houses on each side. Those on the seaward side +are built right on to the water so that many of them have ladders +hanging from their backyards by which the men can climb down into their +boats. Passing casually along the main street and glancing into an open +doorway one sometimes sees the passage falling downwards like an open +shaft, the lower end a rectangle of blue dancing water! + +On the other side the levels, if they can be called levels--for there is +hardly a foot of level land anywhere--rise high overhead. In following +any of the quaint crooked streets it is possible at one moment to look +up at school children playing in a courtyard high overhead and five +minutes later to survey the same children shortened in perspective by +being seen from above! + +In the very midst of the town is the splendid old church, and near it, +but so tucked away it is not easily discovered, is Place House, the seat +of the Treffrys, an old Cornish family. The oldest parts of this have +stood since 1457 and it is said that here once was a palace of the old +Earls of Cornwall, which is quite probable, as they could hardly have +chosen a better spot. + +[Illustration: FOWEY] + +If we pass on by the long narrow main street we come out eventually on +heights terminating in Gribbin Head. But Fowey is not recommended for +people with weak hearts unless they intend to sit upon the charming +verandah of the hotel as suggested in the first chapter. Wherever one +turns there are steep hills to negotiate, and the magnificent views +gained across the deep inlet must be bought by hard labour. Yet having +said that it is but fair to add that nowhere in Britain are there sights +to beat these. The harbour lies like a Norwegian fiord between its +hills, and the water ranges in all imaginable blues and greens as the +light wanes and changes, while there are ever coming and going craft of +many kinds. Fowey is not a fishing village; anyone who said it was would +have to reckon with Sir A. Quiller-Couch! The harbour is visited by +ships in search of cargo such as the china-clay which forms so large a +proportion of the export, and the graceful vessels, often sailing-ships, +which come to fetch it, are towed in and out by the little tugs which +work unceasingly about the narrow straits. And the inlet is one of the +most popular for yachts all along the coast. There is here reproduced a +most interesting chart of Fowey Harbour, drawn in Henry VIII.'s time, +and now in the British Museum. This reproduction is taken from Lysons' +_Magna Britannica_. As will be seen, it shows Lostwithiel, Liskeard, and +even Bodmin, with a pictorial representation of the stags grazing in +Restormel Park. Even at that date the twin forts guarding the narrow +entrance to the harbour were "decayed." + +[Illustration] +[Illustration] + +In Henry III.'s reign Fowey men rescued some of the ships of the men of +Rye, and Fowey was therefore honoured by the Cinque Ports "with armes +and privileges." In the time of Edward III. Fowey supplied more ships to +the King's Navy than any other port in England, which is an amazing +fact. At the Siege of Calais there were forty-seven ships from this +little place! The men of Fowey were always known as bold sailors, having +been brought up upon the water it seemed their natural element. So stung +were the French by the wasps issuing from this nest that they made a +descent on Fowey in 1457 when Lady Treffry, whose husband was not at +home, led the defence and helped to beat back the attackers to their +ships. + +In later times Fowey earned a base reputation for being the harbour of +pirates and eventually was punished by being obliged to transfer its +ships to Dartmouth. + +Those who like boating and sea-fishing will find plentiful opportunity +here to indulge in both. + +[Illustration: BODINNICK FERRY, FOWEY] + +Just opposite Fowey town a deep bite into the land cuts off a +projecting tongue, reached from the west by ferry, and the piled houses +upon it, falling down their mountain-side, lack something of the beauty +they might easily have had in such a situation. But further down, where +at Bodinnick ferry passengers are carried to and fro there is much to +admire. Bodinnick is an inland village which has fallen by accident upon +a seashore, at least that is the impression it gives. The walls are +lined with bladder seaweed, the seaweed that goes "pop" to the delight +of children. This hangs in black masses above the incoming water, but +over it rise woods and trees, and ivy and ferns, and all the +paraphernalia of a country lane. The ivy in fact tumbles riotously down +on the top of the seaweed! The cottages, maintaining their balance with +difficulty on the perilous slope rising from the ferry, are covered with +rose bushes. Candytuft and violets come out in their season to creep +over the rough stone walls; white pigeons flutter overhead and glimpses +of large-leaved plants of a kind more often associated with a tropical +climate, peep at one from backyards. There is nothing conventional or +suburban about Bodinnick! It takes no trouble to clear away the bits of +broken crockery or rusty tins; perhaps it likes the feeling of +homeliness they give, and the sleepy cats appear to like it too. + +From Fowey there is one road and only one, which leads across the +headland westward to Par sands, but there is a choice of two routes by +railway, one running along beside the inlet, which is of course the +mouth of the River Fowey, and giving lovely views of the wooded reaches +about the mouth of its tributary the Lerryn, which, following the custom +of rivers in this district, has a considerable inlet to itself. While +Penpoll Creek, nearer the sea, affords a comfortable harbourage even in +a very high wind. But the one road and the two railways do not sum up +all the ways of getting out of Fowey, for you may persuade the burly +round-eyed old salt who has spent his life in crossing and recrossing +hundreds of times, to put you over at Bodinnick, and then you can wander +at your own sweet will by any of the innumerable tracks over the great +rectangle bounded on the west and north by Fowey River (which turns at a +right angle about Bodmin Road), and on the east by Looe River. This lump +of land is cut up and seamed by valleys and broken by hills. On the +sea-line, about halfway across, is the tiny fishing village--really a +fishing village this time--of Polperro, than which no quainter thing +exists in Britain. You drop down, down, down, to Polperro until you can +look up and see the cows grazing high overhead as you might in an Alpine +valley, and then you plunge into the miniature confused streets of the +town, and following them at random may or may not come out at the little +port, and walking along the rude jetty see the outer harbour and the +small beach. The smell of fish is strong in the air; the fishing-boats +lie in neat rows, supported by legs to prevent their heeling over when +the tide runs out. The houses cluster on the steep hillside in terraces, +and below them a collection of blue-guernseyed stout-booted men, with +wholesome sea-tanned faces, lounge about as if they were the idlest set +in Christendom, though their work demands the hardest toil and greatest +endurance of any calling man can follow. + +Polperro is strangely like a little town in Brittany and has something +about it also which recalls the inland villages tucked away in the spurs +of the Alps or Apennines above the Riviera. It is easy to imagine that +anyone having visited it and trying to recall where he had looked upon +such a scene, would search his memory for tours abroad and never think +of England. + +A good road leads up out of this valley on the Looe side and once the +hill is surmounted it may be remarked with surprise that at the cost of +going a little round it actually tries to keep on the level; that is not +a practice habitual to Cornish roads, which seem to take a pure delight +in a switchback manner of progress. This road was cut in 1849, the means +of arriving at Polperro before that being something like falling down +the face of a cliff. Polperro was the home of Jonathan Couch, the +naturalist, grandfather of the novelist Sir A. Quiller-Couch, who lives +a short way off at Fowey. Mr. Thomas Couch's _History of Polperro_ +embodying his father, Jonathan Couch's, notes, and published in 1871, +may still be read with interest. He pictures himself standing on the +height of Brent. "Immediately below are the harbour, valley and town of +Polperro; the Peak with its striking jagged outline and massive black +colouring; the sail-loft resting in a recess on its side; the ledges of +rocks here and there hollowed into caverns, and the quays, between which +are the fishing-boats riding quietly in tiers. Further up among the +hills which shut this scene in you see strange, and apparently confused, +groups of houses, having a general tint of whitewash, and, above +them, on the southern side, the little Chapel of St. John." + +[Illustration: LOOE] + +Though many new and better-class houses have been built, this +description still holds good. The cliffs all round are very sheer and +steep, dropping straight into the water, which is deep up to the base. +In some of the little old houses there are low, dark rooms smelling +strongly of fish and brine, with the beams showing. Mr. Thomas Couch +says: "In the old home of the Quillers [his mother's family] there was +hanging on a beam a key, which we, as children, regarded with respect +and awe, and never dared to touch, for Richard Quiller, Jane's father, +had put the key of his quadrant on the nail with strong injunctions that +no one should take it off until his return [which never happened]; and +there, I believe, it still hangs." This doubtless gave "Q" his idea for +the key on the beam in that curiously unequal story, _Dead Man's Rock_. + +The two Looes, East and West, facing each other across the mouth of the +river,--which here _looks_ like the mouth of a river and not a fiord as +at Fowey--are easily understood. You can see them both from the bridge, +whereas in Fowey on first arrival it is very difficult to know where you +are and I doubt if anyone really knows even after staying there awhile, +for there is no place where you can get a comprehensive view unless it +is from the opposite shore at the expense of much toil and trouble. The +Looes lack the picturesqueness of Fowey but on the other hand you can +get about much more easily and there is bathing on the front. The woods +lying inland have a great and peculiar charm. Not very far above the +bridge the river bifurcates, the two branches being east and west to +match the twin-town. Here in the wide sandy estuary sea-birds +congregate, and the boats are drawn up in rows beneath the overhanging +trees, which come right down to the very lip of the water. It is +difficult to contemplate without amusement the golden era before the +Reform Bill when this little place returned four members to Parliament, +two for the handful of houses each side of the river! It is +difficult--but perhaps not quite so difficult--to realize that Looe sent +twenty ships to help King Edward III. to besiege Calais. + +But these inlets we have been sketching are small indeed compared with +the mighty harbours of many ramifications such as those at Devonport and +Falmouth. Devonport has already been touched upon elsewhere, and we can +pass on now to Falmouth with its wide opening in Carrick Roads and the +long thin fingers or tongues of water diving deep into the heart of the +land. One of these goes up to Truro and it is one of the popular +excursions from both towns to sail up and down in the summer steamboats +from one to the other. Falmouth itself lies along both sides of the neck +of land ending in Pendennis Point, and, though on a much larger scale, +is in that respect not unlike St. Ives in situation. The southern side +boasts the beach and what may be called Villadom for its share, and the +northern looks upon the harbour and faces over to the hamlet of Flushing +where the ferry runs continually. There are steep streets in Falmouth as +everywhere else in Cornwall, and even the main street passing all along +beside the water, mounts a tough hill toward Penryn. The glimpses of the +crowded harbour and the variety and picturesqueness of the boats and +ships that find their way in are a never-failing source of interest and +pleasure. + +Before the days of steam Falmouth was of more importance than it is now, +and many a sailing ship started from here with a cargo of passengers who +had travelled as far as possible on land before committing themselves to +the uncertain sea. But Falmouth is particularly known for having been +the starting-place of the Royal Mail Packets which went to America, the +Indies and other parts of the globe. The mails were sent down by the +authorities, who chartered armed brigs with a crew of thirty men and +sent them off to run all the risks of the sea and to fight if need be in +defence of their valuable cargo. Many a stubborn fight there was too and +many the weeping widow of Falmouth who mourned her man in vain. It is +supposed that Falmouth first became a station for "packets" in 1688, and +the number sailing from the port was increased from time to time until +in 1763 there were boats going to Lisbon, the West Indies and New York +continually. Therefore for about 150 years, until 1850, Falmouth was the +port for the mail-packets, but when steam power was applied to ships she +lost the mail service which was transferred to Southampton. + +There is a school of artists here, an offshoot from the Newlyn school, +which seems to have been the parent swarm of many a cluster. + +The castle on the headland, now in the hands of the military, dates from +the time of Henry VIII. + +Facing Pendennis Point are the jagged jaws of another peninsula +singularly like a crocodile's head. On the lower jaw is St. Mawes, a +pretty little place with a rising hill behind. This peninsula is +called by the pretty name of Roseland, which has however nothing to +do with flowers, being derived from Rhos, the Celtic word for heath or +gorse. + +[Illustration: FLUSHING--FROM FALMOUTH] + +About a mile along the southern shore of Falmouth is the Swan Pool, a +sheet of fresh water cut off from the sea by a narrow bar of sand, and +supposed by the Falmouth folk to outrival completely the better-known +Looe Pool near Mullion. + +The whole of the Lizard peninsula is nearly shorn through by the Helford +River, which almost reaches across to Looe Pool. If this is the heel of +Cornwall, it, like the heel of Achilles, is vulnerable, and nearly +severed by the slash! There is less to say about the Helford River +estuary than any other. Beyond the fact that it was once a well-known +harbourage for pirates it does not seem to have any striking title to +fame. + +It is rather odd that though Cornwall is so liberally endowed with +coast-line, so that at no part of the Duchy is one really far from the +sea, yet she should have in addition these delightful winding waterways +cutting deeply and widely into her south coast and affording excellent +means of transit. + + + + +VIII + +CORNISH TOWNS + + +If an enquiry were made among the Cornish towns as to which of them it +were fittest to mention first, it can be easily imagined that one and +all would claim the honour for themselves. And truly each has something +to say for itself. Penzance is the town best known to the majority of +visitors, because the railway ends there, and "London to Penzance" has +become almost as common a phrase as "London to Cornwall." But so far as +we are concerned we need not bother about Penzance as we have already +given it full space. Truro could advance good claims for she is the seat +of the Bishop's See and possesses the modern cathedral, the only one in +the Duchy, and also she is the educational centre with fine county +education offices. Bodmin, however, is really the county town as the +Assizes are still held there, an honour she has disputed with Launceston +for many centuries, the Assize Courts having swayed to and fro +between them. Even now there is talk of removing them from Bodmin +owing to the difficulty of getting there. Bodmin is not on the main +Great Western line but only connected with it from Bodmin Road by a +branch line. Launceston can outshine the others by reason of her fine +ruin of the ancient castle and an historical record second to none, but +at present official recognition she cannot claim. + +[Illustration: TRURO] + +Beyond these three we need not go. The coast-towns have been already +visited, and as for smaller ones inland, such as Liskeard, Camelford, +Redruth, Cambourne, Callington and Helston, they cannot hope to compete. + +Truro is just the picture of what one imagines a market-town to be. On +market-days its open spaces are filled with country carts and the quaint +little covered-in omnibuses, like those used by the peasantry of France +on their immensely long straight roads. There is a buzz and clamour of +talk outside the doors of the old Red Lion Inn, or, as it now seems to +be the fashion to say--hotel. This is the house in which Samuel Foote, +actor and dramatist, was born in 1720; his father was at one time Mayor +of Truro. The house is worth seeing on its own account, for it has a +massive carved oak staircase--alas, thickly overlaid with varnish, and +some moulded ceilings unusual in an inn. + +Truro is well watered, as it stands between two small rivers which join +in the creek by which steamboats go down to Falmouth through pretty +wooded scenery. The town itself is quite tolerably flat for a Cornish +town, but long hills run up out of it on all sides. The oldest part of +the cathedral is that which was the parish church, incorporated into the +new building. About the cathedral there have been many opinions, but a +modern cathedral can hardly escape severe criticism considering that it +has to compete with all the dignity and reverence of those which have +stood hundreds of years! The white stone shows up well, and though the +town is more or less in a basin the tall spires are seen from the +surrounding hills to advantage. There are good shops in Truro and much +that is of interest, including the very fine collection in the Museum of +the Royal Institution of Cornwall, now housed in a worthy building. Here +anyone who has wandered in the hills and over the barren moors and seen +the relics of hoary antiquity so freely scattered, can look with seeing +eye on the more valuable specimens which have been found and are now +cared for and preserved where they will not be stolen or lost. + +Even in Domesday Book Truro is mentioned, and at that time there were +two towns, Great and Little Truro, standing under the shadow of a +fortress held by the Earls of Cornwall, now vanished, though its site is +known and pointed out near the station. The town's charter was granted +in 1130 and renewed in 1589, so it is not much matter for wonder the +inhabitants look upon it as the first city in Cornwall, and, in olden +times, so bore themselves that they earned for their city the nickname +of "Proud Truro." + +The cathedral was in great part due to the energy of Bishop Benson, +afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, who was made first Bishop when the +See was created. Bishop Benson "delighted in the Cornish people and was +never tired of observing and analyzing their character." He did much for +Truro in many ways. + +Bodmin stands almost in the middle of the Duchy with two long fingers, +that of the inlet of Fowey on the south and that of the inlet of the +River Camel on the north, pointing directly at it. It is a very quiet +little town but has somehow managed to preserve its charm. The fine old +parish church, almost worthy to take rank as a cathedral, is in the +midst, easily to be seen. The church is the largest in Cornwall and +parts of it date from 1125. It once had a very striking spire, destroyed +by lightning in 1699. Bodmin means the Monks' Town, and even though it +has the enormous barracks built in the usual style, just outside, it +still keeps something of the monkish atmosphere. Bodmin scorns Truro's +claims of long descent, turning to Athelstan as its founder. Athelstan, +who founded here in 926 a Benedictine Priory of which some traces even +now remain. The town is in a beautiful and well-wooded neighbourhood, +and anyone taking the trouble to climb Beacon Hill just outside will be +rewarded. It was at Bodmin in 1498 that Perkin Warbeck, who had +disembarked near Land's End, gathered 3,000 men together and started his +disastrous campaign by launching himself against Exeter. In Bodmin meet, +or rather "meet with a gap between," the two rival railways--the Great +Western and London and South Western; the latter station is a terminus, +and the line running northward connects the town with Wadebridge and +Padstow. The former comes from Bodmin Road where it joins the main +line, and continues also to Wadebridge. + +[Illustration: THE BANKS OF THE FAL, FALMOUTH] + +Between Bodmin and Launceston stretches the wild tract of country known +as Bodmin Moor. A more desolate region it would be hard to find or one +more covered with relics of primitive man. Norden has said in writing of +Cornwall, "The rockes are high, huge, ragged and craggy not only upon +the sea-coaste ... but also the inland mountayns are so crowned with +mightie rockes as he that passing through the country beholding some of +the rockes afar off may suppose them to be greate cyties planted on the +hills, wherin prima facie ther appeareth the resemblance of towres, +howses, chimnies and such like." + +Though he flatters the Cornish highlands in calling them mountains, yet +it is true enough that the tors out-cropping in this region do take on +most curious shapes. The most remarkable of all is the unstable-looking +Cheesewring, southwest of Launceston, and rather difficult of access. +Here stones are piled one on the top of the other, each larger than the +last, till the effect is that of a gigantic and misshapen mushroom. But +it was not built deliberately, it just happened so. How--no one knows, +but the suggestion is that the mass was once banked in by earth, which +was washed away, leaving the bare pinnacle of stone. In the midst of the +moor Brown Willy and Rough Tor rise with considerable picturesqueness, +and their surfaces are strewn with the old beehive huts of a people +whose history is lost. + +But those who are not familiar with the country should not wander far +from the road as the bogs and marshes are really dangerous. They find +their culmination in the odd little lake called Dozmare Pool associated +with the story of King Arthur. This has no apparent outlet, and was once +reported to be of fabulous depth. + +Launceston stands in a category by itself; though both the preceding +towns are fairly hilly, it outdoes them magnificently in that respect! +The streets up from the station are so steep that only by one of them, +graded for the purpose, can vehicles mount at all. The others are merely +for foot-passengers. Yet if looked at on a map which does not give +contours, it will be seen that Launceston in reality is one very long +straggling street running from end to end with various branches. This +street dips down into the hollow where the railway is and mounts the +other side. Baring-Gould says of Launceston, "Scarcely another English +town has such a picturesque and continental appearance," but that is a +matter of opinion. The name, meaning Church-Castle-Town, is very +explanatory, for the church and castle are the two outstanding objects +of interest. The former is most curious, for every foot of the walls +outside is covered by granite carving, mostly of secular subjects and +hacked out instead of chiselled. + +At the east end beneath the east window is a recess with a figure of +Mary Magdalene much worn and tormented, and no wonder, for it is one of +the Launceston superstitions that anyone who can chuck a pebble so as to +lodge on the statue's back--no easy feat as the slope is slippery--will +have a year's good luck, and many there be that try! The church is +dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene and is, as churches go, of no great age. +Curiously enough it was not at first the parish church but merely the +development of a chapel. + +The present building dates from 1511 and the tower is older. What is +very singular, and accounts for the choice of subjects on its quaintly +carven walls, is that they were not designed for a sacred building at +all. They were done for Henry Ashe of Trecarell, a wealthy Cornishman +who had a great mansion and was rebuilding it regardless of cost; but in +the midst of the work his only son, a child, was drowned and the mother +died almost immediately from the shock, so the wretched father passed on +the granite carvings, designed for a gateway to his mansion, to the +church, where they now attract many curious visitors and adorn, not only +the walls but the very fine projecting south porch. The rose, the +pomegranate, the Prince of Wales's feathers are frequently repeated with +the arms of Trecarell and Ashe. In order to give it an ecclesiastical +finish certain sentences in Latin such as "Oh how terrible and fearful +is this place. Surely this is none other but the house of God and the +gate of heaven!" are embossed on shields round the base. + +A much more ancient church is that of St. Stephen away on the opposite +heights beyond the valley. Some authorities think that the name +Launceston really means Llan Stephan, the church of St. Stephen, and +there is some colour for this, as it is possible the original town was +around the older church and that the other grew up near to the castle. +Baring-Gould boldly claims that the present town has no right to the +name at all, but should be called Dunheved meaning "Swelling Hill." The +castle keep certainly stands on a most appropriate swelling hill, just +the place for such a fortification, with a magnificent view over miles +of country. + +The present remains, the great keep with its rings of stone, is of +Norman origin, but there was most certainly a Saxon castle here before +it. It stands in delightful grounds, freely open to all, and a very +sanctuary for birds. A winding stair runs within the wall and even in +the present roofless condition it needs but little imagination to +transport oneself back into feudal times, when the womenfolk cowered +within the small rooms behind the solid masonry, and the warriors +guarded the loopholes, watching, waiting for attack. + +Launceston is peculiarly rich in churches; besides the two mentioned +there is St. Thomas, in the valley between, where have been discovered +the ruins of a priory. From this the doorway of the White Hart Hotel in +the market-place came. + +Down a side street is one of the old city gates, the only one remaining +to show that Launceston was once walled. The chief point of interest +about this, however, is apparently the very substantial tree, which, in +most mysterious fashion, has found root-hold in the stone crevices and +continues to flourish many feet above the ground. + + + + +IX + +CORNISH CUSTOMS + + +Old customs, and festivals carrying in them the germ of a meaning and +significance long forgotten by those who practised them but intelligible +to students of antiquity, continued to be observed in Cornwall when they +had died out in most other places. There is no part of England where so +many curious observances, superstitions and festivals are still observed +as in Cornwall. + +Midsummer Day merrymakings were long kept up in many places, especially +in regard to the part played by fire, and Richard Edmonds, secretary for +Cornwall to the Cambrian Archaeological Association, writing in 1862, +says:--"It is the immemorial usage in Penzance, and the neighbouring +towns and villages, to kindle bonfires and torches on Midsummer Eve.... +St. Peter's Eve is distinguished by a similar display.... On these eves +a line of tar-barrels, relieved occasionally by large bonfires, is seen +in the centre of each of the principal streets in Penzance. On either +side of this line young men and women pass up and down, swinging round +their heads heavy torches made of large pieces of folded canvas steeped +in tar and nailed to the ends of sticks between three and four feet +long.... On these nights Mounts Bay has a most animating appearance +although not equal to what was annually witnessed at the beginning of +the present century when the whole coast from the Land's End to the +Lizard, wherever a town or a village existed, was lighted up with these +stationary or moving fires.... At the close of fireworks in Penzance, a +great number of persons of both sexes, chiefly from the neighbourhood of +the quay, used always, until within the last few years, to join hand in +hand forming a long string and run through the streets playing 'thread +the needle,' heedless of the fireworks showered upon them, and +oftentimes leaping over the yet glowing embers. I have on these +occasions seen boys following one another jumping through flames higher +than themselves." + +This is a significant reminder of the custom of passing children through +the fire referred to in the Bible. + +May Day celebrations are still kept up in the little town of Helston, +the key to the Lizard. This saturnalia is held on the eighth of the +month instead of the first, because the eighth is the festival of the +apparition of St. Michael, who is represented in the Town Arms. The +festival is called the "furry dance," a word which some writers have +associated with "forage" or "foray" because the young people make a raid +on all gardens and out into the fields early in the morning to collect +flowers and green boughs. Polwhele connects the word with the old +Cornish "fer," a fair or jubilee. Rather unsuccessful attempts have also +been made to bring in the goddess Flora, and suggest a corruption of +Flora-day to fit the present name. + +The day is a general holiday and anyone caught working is subjected to +unpleasant penalties. About midday the most important person present +leads off with his partner down the main street to the tune of a +hornpipe--a local tune--and they are followed by a gay crowd. The throng +threads in and out of the houses, in by the front door and out by the +back if possible, for all doors are left open for them. Woe be to the +churl who kept his shut! At length they arrive at the Assembly Rooms +where a real ball begins. + +This curious performance slackened off for some years, but the +Helstonians, finding that their little town owed a good deal of +advertisement to this special festival, have revived it with goodwill, +and now are inundated with visitors at the recurrence of the +anniversary. + +Furry Day used to be held at Penryn on May 3 and at the Lizard on May 1 +and also in the parish of Sithney, but now it can only be seen at +Helston. + +May Day has peculiar significance as being the celebration of the return +of spring, and it is the custom at dawn on that day in some parts to dip +weakly infants in the holy wells, which abound in Cornwall, to ensure +strength. This is still done, though either secretly or in a jesting +spirit, at the holy well of Madron near Penzance of which Madron is the +mother parish. + +Many people adorn their houses in Cornwall with boughs and garlands in +honour of the day even at the present time. May Day was the great day +for miracle plays, so beloved by the old Cornishmen before they learned +to consider them sinful under the teaching of Wesley. The best of the +old amphitheatres, at any rate the one most accessible, is the +Plan-an-Guare at St. Just referred to elsewhere. + +[Illustration: AT NEWLYN] + +At Padstow hobby-horses still prance round the town on May Day. +Edmonds says:--"The hobby horse, or effigy of a horse, is, at this +festival of the moon, dipped in a pool of water, and, for the same +reason perhaps, that a similar figure was, in Ireland, passed through +fire at the festival of the sun; to preserve the cattle from death and +disease." Sun and moon being represented by fire and water. + +Mr. Baring-Gould says:--"During the days that precede the festival no +garden is safe. Walls, railings, even barbed wire, are surmounted by +boys and men in quest of flowers. Conservatories have to be fast locked, +or they will be invaded. The house that has a show of flowers in the +windows is besieged by pretty children with roguish eyes begging for +blossoms which they cannot steal. The Hobby-horse Pairs, as they were +called, _i.e._, a party of eight men, then repaired to the 'Golden +Lion,' at that time the first inn in Padstow, and sat down to a hearty +supper of leg of mutton and plum-pudding, given them by the landlord. +After supper a great many young men joined the 'pairs,' _i.e._, the +_peers_, the lords of the merriment, and all started for the country, +and went round from one farmhouse to another, singing at the doors of +each, and soliciting contributions to the festivities of the morrow. + +"They returned into Padstow about three o'clock in the morning, and +promenaded the streets singing the 'Night Song.' After that they retired +to rest for a few hours. At ten o'clock in the morning the 'pairs' +assembled at the 'Golden Lion' again, and now was brought forth the +hobby-horse. The drum-and-fife band was marshalled to precede, and then +came the young girls of Padstow dressed in white, with garlands of +flowers in their hair, and their white gowns pinned up with flowers. The +men followed armed with pistols, loaded with a little powder, which they +fired into the air or at the spectators. Lastly came the hobby-horse, +ambling, curvetting, and snapping its jaws. It may be remarked that the +Padstow hobby-horse is wonderfully like the Celtic horse decoration +found on old pillars and crosses with interlaced work. The procession +went first to Prideaux Place, where the late squire, Mr. Prideaux Brune, +always emptied a purse of money into the hands of the 'pairs.' Then the +procession visited the vicarage, and was welcomed by the parson. After +that it went forth from the town to Treator Pool 'for the horse to +drink.'" + +In Hitchins' _History of Cornwall_, edited by Samuel Drew, he says of +the hobby-horse of Padstow: "The head, being dipped into the water, is +instantly taken up and the mud and water are sprinkled on the spectators +to the no small diversion of all." + +The Maypole festivities have been given up of recent years, but +hobby-horses still prance the streets. + +Hitchins gives an account of a few local superstitions, some of which +are not peculiar to Cornwall:-- + +"The sound of the cuckoo, if first heard on the right ear, denotes good +luck; but to hear the voice first on the left, is an omen of undefinable +disasters. To spit on the first piece of money that is received in the +morning will ensure a successful day in trade; and to hold up a silver +coin against the new moon on its first appearance can hardly fail to +secure lunar virtue for a month. To bite from the ground the first fern +that appears in the spring is an infallible preventive of the toothache +during the year; and the first ripe blackberry that is seen will put +away warts. To pay money on the first day of January is very unlucky as +it ensures a continuance of disbursements during the year; and to remove +bees on any day besides Good Friday will ensure their death; while to +work oxen on that day is an act which few would dare to perform lest +they should suddenly die in the yoke. To whistle underground is an +offence which few miners will suffer to pass over in silence; but to +whistle while the farmer is winnowing his corn will as inevitably bring +the wind as on board of a ship or boat, it is certain to secure a +favourable breeze." + +Polwhele says: "The custom of saluting the apple-trees at Christmas with +a view to another year, is still preserved both in Cornwall and +Devonshire. In some places the parishioners walk in procession visiting +the principal orchards in the parish; in each orchard single out the +principal tree, salute it with a certain form of words and sprinkle it +with cyder or dash a bowl of cyder against it. In other places, the +farmer and his workmen only, immerse cakes in cyder and place them on +the branches of an apple-tree in due solemnity; sprinkle the tree, as +they repeat a formal incantation and dance round it." + +The harvest custom where the last handful of corn is cut, being called +"a neck," and then dressed with flowers and carried off in triumph has +been often referred to. + +The men of Cornwall have long been celebrated for wrestling, they being +no whit behind the men of Devonshire and Somerset in this. + +They have other special games of their own too. Of which the chief is +"hurling," though now only kept up in the parishes of St. Columb Major +and Minor, in other words in the neighbourhood of Newquay, though a +collection is made at St. Ives in a silver "hurlers' ball." The game is +that of a ball being flung and thrown from one to the other, with goals +which may be two miles apart. Sometimes one match takes days to decide. +It is an extremely rough-and-tumble sport. In the season a match is +played on the wide flat firm expanse of Newquay sands and hundreds take +part in it, badges being used to discriminate between the players. And +on Shrove Tuesday a game is played in the town of St. Columb the ball +being thrown up in the market-place and all traffic being held up for +the occasion. The goals used to be "either the mansion-house of one of +the leading gentlemen of the party, a parish church, or some other +well-known place." The ball is rather larger than a cricket-ball, but +not so large as a football, and is silvered over. The struggle is +expressively described by Carew:--"The hurlers take their way over +hills, dales, hedges and ditches, through bushes, briers, mires, +plashes, rivers; sometimes twenty or thirty lie tugging together in the +water, scrambling and scratching for the ball." + +These customs and sports are only samples, for there are many quaint +ideas still held in certain parishes which would almost provide the +material for a book by themselves, and are far too numerous to collect +together in a sketch like the present. However, enough has perhaps been +said to show how the Cornish spirit still lingers in spite of the influx +of "foreigners" growing ever greater yearly. + + + + +SOME BOOKS ON CORNWALL + + + ANON. Walk Round Mount Edgcumbe. 1821. + BARING-GOULD, S. Book of the East. 1902. + BARING-GOULD, S. Vicar of Morwenstow. 1876. + BLIGHT, J. T. Land's End. 1861. + BORLASE, W. C. Noenia Cornubiae. 1872. + BRAY, ANNA ELIZA. Banks of Tamar. New edition. 1879. + CAMDEN. Britannia. 1594. + CAREW, RICHARD. Survey of Cornwall. 1602. + COLLINS, WILKIE. Rambles Beyond Railways. 1861. + COUCH, JONATHAN. History of Polperro. 1871. + CRAIK, MRS. An Unsentimental Journey in Cornwall. 1884. + DICKINSON, W. H. King Arthur in Cornwall. 1900. + EDMONDS, RICHARD. Land's End District. 1862. + GAY, SUSAN E. Old Falmouth. 1903. + GILBERT, C. S. Historical Survey of Cornwall. Two vols. 1817-20. + GILBERT, DAVIES. Parochial History of Cornwall. Four vols. 1838. + HALLIWELL, J. O. Rambles in Western Cornwall. 1861. + HAMMOND, JOSEPH. St. Austell. 1897. + HARVEY, E. G. Mullion. 1875. + HIND, LEWIS. Days in Cornwall. 1907. + HUDSON, W. H. The Land's End. 1908. + JOHNS, REV. C. A. A Week at the Lizard. 1874. + LACH-SZYRMA, W. S. Short History of Penzance, etc. 1878. + LYSONS. Magna Britannica. 1806-22. Vol. iii. + MACLEAN, SIR J. Trigg Minor. Three vols. 1873-79. + MATTHEWS, J. H. Parishes of St. Ives, Lelant, etc. 1892. + NORTH, I. W. Week in Scilly. 1850. + NORWAY, A. H. Highways and Byways in Devon and Cornwall. 1897. + POLWHELE, REV. RICHARD. History of Cornwall. 1803 and 1806. + ROBBINS, A. F. Launceston, Past and Present. 1888. + SCOTT, C. A. DAWSON-. Nooks and Corners of Cornwall. + STONE, J. HARRIS. England's Riviera. 1912. + TREGARTHEN, J. C. Wild Life at the Land's End. 1904. + VICTORIA COUNTY HISTORY. 1906. + + +NOVELS. + +Most of Q's books. + + ELLIS, MRS. HAVELOCK. My Cornish Neighbours. + SIDGWICK, MRS. ALFRED. In Other Days. 1915. + BESANT, SIR WALTER. Armorel of Lyonnesse. 1890. + + + + +INDEX + + +Archaeology, 17 + +Armed Knight, the, 61 + +Arthur. _See under_ King + +Artists, 15, 39, 41, 95, 122 + +Athelstan, 22, 43, 59, 128 + +"Atlantic Drive, The," 47 + + +Bedruthan Steps, 11, 60, 101 + +Benson, Bishop, 127 + +Bird-life, 25, 57, 76, 87 + +Bodinnick Ferry, 115 + +Bodmin, 124, 127 + +Bodmin Moor, 129 + +Bodmin Road, 29 + +Boscastle, 89 + +Brisons, the, 60 + +British villages, 46 + +Brown Willy, 12 + +Bude, 105 + + +Callington, 125 + +Cambourne, 125 + +Camel River, 103, 127 + +Camelford, 78, 125 + +Camulodunum, Battle of, 78 + +Cape Cornwall, 60 + +Cardinham Castle, 84 + +Castle-an-Dinas, 100 + +Cheesewring, 129 + +Chun Castle, 47 + +Cliffs, 61, 65, 87, 106 + +Climate, mildness of, 7 + +Cornish cliffs, 11 + +Cornish people, 4, 17, 18, 85 + +Couch, Jonathan, 118 + +Crantock, 101 + +Cream, 21 + +Customs, 135 + + +Davy, Sir Humphry, 39 + +Delabole, 89 + +Devonport, 120 + +Dozmare Pool, 130 + +Dunheved, 133 + + +Earthworks, 47 + +East Looe, 119 + +Enys Dodman, 61 + + +Falmouth, 120 + +Fistral Bay, 99 + +Flushing, 121 + +Forraburry, 90 + +Fougou Hole, 43 + +Fowey, 8, 14, 30, 109 _et seq._ + +"Furry dance," 137 + + +Gannel River, 101 + +Godrevy Point, 93 + +Golf, 10, 20, 92, 99, 106 + +Goonhilly Downs, 64 + +Great Western Railway, 29, 128 + +Grenville, Sir Bevil, 107 + +Gribbin Head, 110 + + +Hamoaze, 24 + +Hawker, Rev. Robert Stephen, 107 + +"Hedges," 5, 31 + +Helford River, 123 + +Helston, 125, 137 + +Hills, 12, 41, 50, 96, 130 + +History, 21 + +Holy wells, 101 + +Housel Bay Hotel, 64 + +Hugh Town, 58 + +Hurling, 143 + + +Killibury Castle, 85 + +King Arthur, 55, 72 _et seq._ + +King Stephen, 59 + +Knill monument, 97 + +Kynance Cove, 11, 66 + + +Lamorna Cove, 41 + +Land of Lyonnesse, 37, 55 + +Landewednack, 32 + +Land's End, 1, 2, 51, 60 + +Lanherne, Vale of, 100 + +Lanyon Quoit, 46 + +Launceston, 12, 124, 130 + +Lelant, 92, 98 + +Lerryn River, 116 + +Lighthouses, 53, 68 + +Liskeard, 125 + +Lizard, the, 63 + +Lizard-town, 64 + +Lloyd's Signal Station, 69 + +Logan Rock, 45, 46 + +London and South-Western Railway, 128 + +Longships Light, 53 + +Looes, East and West, 119 + +Lundy Island, 90 + +Luxulyan, 15 + +Luxulyan Valley, 29 + +Lynher or St. Germans River, 24 + + +Madron, 46 + +Marazion, 37 + +May Day, 136 + +"Merry Maidens," 44 + +Midsummer Day, 135 + +Mining Region, 49 + +Mordred, 78 + +Morwenstow, 107 + +Mount Edgcumbe, 25 + +Mount's Bay, 35 + +Mousehole, 40 + +Mozrang Pool, 61 + +Mullion, 14 + + +Newlyn, 15, 39 + +Newquay, 98 + +Nonconformists, 38 + + +Padstow, 103, 128, 138 + +Pardenick Point, 61 + +Pasties, 21 + +Pedn Men Dhu, 60 + +Pendennis Point, 121, 122 + +Penolva Point, 97 + +Penpoll Creek, 116 + +Penryn, 121 + +Pentargon Bay, 91 + +Pentire Point, 104 + +Penzance, 34, 38, 93, 124, 136 + +Perran Beach, 102 + +Perranporth, 103 + +Perranzabuloe, 103 + +Pilchards, 95 + +"Pipers, The," 43 + +Pirates, 114, 123 + +Plan-an-guare, 50 + +Plant-life, 16 + +Polperro, 14, 117 + +Porthgwarra, 63 + +Porthgwidden Cove, 97 + +Porthmeor Bay, 95 + +Porthminster Bay, 92 + + +Quiller-Couch, Sir A., 118 + + +Redruth, 125 + +Roads, 13, 49 + +Roche, 30 + +Rock, 104 + +Rocky Valley, 88 + +Roseland, 123 + +Royal Institution of Cornwall, 126 + +Royal Mail Packets, 121 + + +St. Blazey, 29 + +St. Buryan, 22, 44 + +St. Columb Major, 100, 143 + +St. Columb Minor, 100, 143 + +St. Erth, 94 + +St. Germans or Lynher River, 24 + +St. Ives, 7, 15, 92 _et seq._ + +St. Mary's Island, 58 + +St. Mawes, 122 + +St. Mawgan, 100 + +St. Michael's Mount, 35 + +St. Piran, 102 + +Saints, 99 + +Saltash, 24 + +Scilly Isles, 56 + +Sennen, 59 + +Sennen Cove, 59 + +Serpentine Rock, 66 + +Seven Stones, 56 + +Slaughter Bridge, 78 + +Stamford, Earl of, 107 + +Stephen, King, 59 + +Stratton, 107 + +Swan Pool, 123 + + +Tamar River, 24 + +Tavy River, 24 + +Tol Pedn, 61 + +Treffrys, the, 110 + +Treryn Dinas, 45, 73 + +Trevalgue Head, 101 + +Trevose Headland, 100 + +Truro, 125 + + +Uther Pendragon, 77 + + +Valleys, 30 + +Vell-an-Dreath, 59 + + +Wadebridge, 128 + +Warbeck, Perkin, 59, 128 + +Watergate Bay, 101 + +Wesley, 38, 50 + +West Looe, 119 + +Whitesand Bay, 58 + +Wolf Lighthouse, 53 + +Wrangle Point, 107 + +Wrestling, 143 + + +Zennor, 48 + + +THE END + + +BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS, GUILDFORD, ENGLAND + +[Illustration: SKETCH-MAP OF CORNWALL + +(A. & C. BLACK, LTD., LONDON)] + + + Transcriber's note: + + _Underscores_ have been used to indicate _italic_ fonts. + Inconsistent hyphenation left as written. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Cornwall, by G. E. 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