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diff --git a/44557-0.txt b/44557-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..97d972f --- /dev/null +++ b/44557-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4628 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44557 *** + + AN UNSENTIMENTAL JOURNEY + + THROUGH CORNWALL + + [Illustration: ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT.] + + + + + AN + + UNSENTIMENTAL JOURNEY + + THROUGH + + CORNWALL + + BY + + THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN" + + WITH ILLUSTRATIONS + + BY + + C. NAPIER HEMY + + London + + MACMILLAN AND CO. + + 1884 + + _The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved_ + + LONDON: + + R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, + + BREAD STREET HILL, E.C. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + DAY THE FIRST 1 + + DAY THE SECOND 9 + + DAY THE THIRD 25 + + DAY THE FOURTH 45 + + DAY THE FIFTH 53 + + DAY THE SIXTH 59 + + DAY THE SEVENTH 67 + + DAY THE EIGHTH 75 + + DAY THE NINTH 86 + + DAY THE TENTH 101 + + DAY THE ELEVENTH 110 + + DAY THE TWELFTH 118 + + DAY THE THIRTEENTH 127 + + DAYS FOURTEENTH, FIFTEENTH, AND SIXTEENTH 133 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT _Frontispiece_ + + FALMOUTH, FROM FLUSHING 1 + + ST. MAWE'S CASTLE, FALMOUTH BAY 5 + + VIEW OF FLUSHING FROM THE GREEN BANK HOTEL, FALMOUTH 7 + + A FISHERMAN'S CELLAR NEAR THE LIZARD 11 + + THE CORNISH COAST: FROM YNYS HEAD TO BEAST POINT 15 + + THE LIZARD LIGHTS BY NIGHT 23 + + CORNISH FISH 24 + + POLTESCO 29 + + CADGWITH COVE 32 + + THE DEVIL'S FRYING PAN, NEAR CADGWITH 34 + + MULLION COVE, CORNWALL 38 + + A CRABBER'S HOLE, GERRAN'S BAY 41 + + STEAM SEINE BOATS GOING OUT 46 + + HAULING IN THE BOATS--EVENING 50 + + HAULING IN THE LINES 55 + + THE LIZARD LIGHTS BY DAY 60 + + THE FISHERMAN'S DAUGHTER--A CORNISH STUDY 63 + + KYNANCE COVE, CORNWALL 68 + + THE STEEPLE ROCK, KYNANCE COVE 71 + + THE LION ROCKS--A SEA IN WHICH NOTHING CAN LIVE 76 + + HAULING IN THE BOATS 79 + + ENYS DODNAN AND PARDENICK POINTS 83 + + JOHN CURGENVEN FISHING 87 + + THE ARMED KNIGHT AND THE LONG SHIP'S LIGHTHOUSE 94 + + CORNISH FISHERMAN 100 + + THE SEINE BOAT--A PERILOUS MOMENT 103 + + ST. IVES 108 + + THE LAND'S END AND THE LOGAN ROCK 114 + + SENNEN COVE, WAITING FOR THE BOATS 119 + + ON THE ROAD TO ST. NIGHTON'S KEEVE 124 + + TINTAGEL 128 + + CRESWICK'S MILL IN THE ROCKY VALLEY 135 + + BOSCASTLE 139 + + THE OLD POST-OFFICE, TREVENA 145 + + + + +AN UNSENTIMENTAL JOURNEY + +THROUGH CORNWALL + + + + +[Illustration: FALMOUTH, FROM FLUSHING.] + + + + +DAY THE FIRST + + +I believe in holidays. Not in a frantic rushing about from place to +place, glancing at everything and observing nothing; flying from town +to town, from hotel to hotel, eager to "do" and to see a country, in +order that when they get home they may say they have done it, and seen +it. Only to say;--as for any real vision of eye, heart, and brain, they +might as well go through the world blindfold. It is not the things +we see, but the mind we see them with, which makes the real interest +of travelling. "Eyes and No Eyes,"--an old-fashioned story about two +little children taking a walk; one seeing everything, and enjoying +everything, and the other seeing nothing, and thinking the expedition +the dullest imaginable. This simple tale, which the present generation +has probably never read, contains the essence of all rational +travelling. + +So when, as the "old hen," (which I am sometimes called, from my habit +of going about with a brood of "chickens," my own or other people's) I +planned a brief tour with two of them, one just entered upon her teens, +the other in her twenties, I premised that it must be a tour after my +own heart. + +"In the first place, my children, you must obey orders implicitly. I +shall collect opinions, and do my best to please everybody; but in +travelling one only must decide, the others coincide. It will save them +a world of trouble, and their 'conductor' also; who, if competent to be +trusted at all, should be trusted absolutely. Secondly, take as little +luggage as possible. No sensible people travel with their point-lace +and diamonds. Two 'changes of raiment,' good, useful dresses, prudent +boots, shawls, and waterproofs--these I shall insist upon, and nothing +more. Nothing for show, as I shall take you to no place where you can +show off. We will avoid all huge hotels, all fashionable towns; we +will study life in its simplicity, and make ourselves happy in our own +humble, feminine way. Not 'roughing it' in any needless or reckless +fashion--the 'old hen' is too old for that; yet doing everything with +reasonable economy. Above all, rushing into no foolhardy exploits, and +taking every precaution to keep well and strong, so as to enjoy the +journey from beginning to end, and hinder no one else from enjoying +it. There are four things which travellers ought never to lose: their +luggage, their temper, their health, and their spirits. I will make +you as happy as I possibly can, but you must also make me happy by +following my rules: especially the one golden rule, Obey orders." + +So preached the "old hen," with a vague fear that her chickens might +turn out to be ducklings, which would be a little awkward in the +region whither she proposed to take them. For if there is one place +more risky than another for adventurous young people with a talent +for "perpetuating themselves down prejudices," as Mrs. Malaprop would +say, it is that grandest, wildest, most dangerous coast, the coast of +Cornwall. + +I had always wished to investigate Cornwall. This desire had existed +ever since, at five years old, I made acquaintance with Jack the +Giantkiller, and afterwards, at fifteen or so, fell in love with my +life's one hero, King Arthur. + +Between these two illustrious Cornishmen,--equally mythical, practical +folk would say--there exists more similarity than at first appears. +The aim of both was to uphold right and to redress wrong. Patience, +self-denial; tenderness to the weak and helpless, dauntless courage +against the wicked and the strong: these, the essential elements of +true manliness, characterise both the humble Jack and the kingly +Arthur. And the qualities seem to have descended to more modern times. +The well-known ballad:-- + + "And shall they scorn Tre, Pol, and Pen? + And shall Trelawny die? + There's twenty thousand Cornishmen + Will know the reason why," + +has a ring of the same tone, indicating the love of justice, the spirit +of fidelity and bravery, as well as of that common sense which is at +the root of all useful valour. + +I wanted to see if the same spirit lingered yet, as I had heard it did +among Cornish folk, which, it was said, were a race by themselves, +honest, simple, shrewd, and kind. Also, I wished to see the Cornish +land, and especially the Land's End, which I had many a time beheld in +fancy, for it was a favourite landscape-dream of my rather imaginative +childhood, recurring again and again, till I could almost have painted +it from memory. And as year after year every chance of seeing it in its +reality seemed to melt away, the desire grew into an actual craving. + +After waiting patiently for nearly half a century, I said to myself, "I +will conquer Fate; I _will_ go and see the Land's End." + +And it was there that, after making a circuit round the coast, I +proposed finally to take my "chickens." + +We concocted a plan, definite yet movable, as all travelling plans +should be, clear in its dates, its outline, and intentions, but +subject to modifications, according to the exigency of the times +and circumstances. And with that prudent persistency, without which +all travelling is a mere muddle, all discomfort, disappointment, +and distaste--for on whatever terms you may be with your travelling +companions when you start, you are quite sure either to love them or +hate them when you get home--we succeeded in carrying it out. + +The 1st of September, 1881, and one of the loveliest of September +days, was the day we started from Exeter, where we had agreed to meet +and stay the night. There, the previous afternoon, we had whiled away +an hour in the dim cathedral, and watched, not without anxiety, the +flood of evening sunshine which poured through the great west window, +lighting the tombs, old and new, from the Crusader, cross-legged and +broken-nosed, to the white marble bas-relief which tells the story of a +not less noble Knight of the Cross, Bishop Patteson. Then we wandered +round the quaint old town, in such a lovely twilight, such a starry +night! But--will it be a fine day to-morrow? We could but live in hope: +and hope did not deceive us. + +To start on a journey in sunshine feels like beginning life well. +Clouds may come--are sure to come: I think no one past earliest youth +goes forth into a strange region without a feeling akin to Saint Paul's +"not knowing what things may befall me there." But it is always best +for each to keep to himself all the shadows, and give his companions +the brightness, especially if they be young companions. + +And very bright were the eyes that watched the swift-moving landscape +on either side of the railway: the estuary of Exe; Dawlish, with its +various colouring of rock and cliff, and its pretty little sea-side +houses, where family groups stood photographing themselves on our +vision, as the train rushed unceremoniously between the beach and their +parlour windows; then Plymouth and Saltash, where the magnificent +bridge reminded us of the one over the Tay, which we had once crossed, +not long before that Sunday night when, sitting in a quiet sick-room +in Edinburgh, we heard the howl outside of the fearful blast which +destroyed such a wonderful work of engineering art, and whirled so many +human beings into eternity. + +But this Saltash bridge, spanning placidly a smiling country, +how pretty and safe it looked! There was a general turning to +carriage-windows, and then a courteous drawing back, that we, +the strangers, should see it, which broke the ice with our +fellow-travellers. To whom we soon began to talk, as is our +conscientious custom when we see no tangible objection thereto, and +gained, now, as many a time before, much pleasant as well as useful +information. Every one evinced an eager politeness to show us the +country, and an innocent anxiety that we should admire it; which we +could honestly do. + +I shall long remember, as a dream of sunshiny beauty and peace, this +journey between Plymouth and Falmouth, passing Liskeard, Lostwithiel, +St. Austell, &c. The green-wooded valleys, the rounded hills, on one of +which we were shown the remains of the old castle of Ristormel, noted +among the three castles of Cornwall; all this, familiar to so many, +was to us absolutely new, and we enjoyed it and the kindly interest +that was taken in pointing it out to us, as happy-minded simple folk do +always enjoy the sight of a new country. + +[Illustration: ST. MAWE'S CASTLE, FALMOUTH BAY.] + +Our pleasure seemed to amuse an old gentleman who sat in the corner. +He at last addressed us, with an unctuous west-country accent which +suited well his comfortable stoutness. He might have fed all his life +upon Dorset butter and Devonshire cream, to one of which counties +he certainly belonged. Not, I think, to the one we were now passing +through, and admiring so heartily. + +"So you're going to travel in Cornwall. Well, take care, they're sharp +folk, the Cornish folk. They'll take you in if they can." (Then, he +must be a Devon man. It is so easy to sit in judgment upon next-door +neighbours.) "I don't mean to say they'll actually cheat you, but +they'll take you in, and they'll be careful that you don't take them +in--no, not to the extent of a brass farthing." + +We explained, smiling, that we had not the slightest intention of +taking anybody in, that we liked justice, and blamed no man, Cornishman +or otherwise, for trying to do the best he could for himself, so that +it was not to the injury of other people. + +"Well, well, perhaps you're right. But they are sharp, for all that, +especially in the towns." + +We replied that we meant to escape towns, whenever possible, and encamp +in some quiet places, quite out of the world. + +Our friend opened his eyes, evidently thinking this a most singular +taste. + +"Well, if you really want a quiet place, I can tell you of one, almost +as quiet as your grave. I ought to know, for I lived there sixteen +years." (At any rate, it seemed to have agreed with him.) "Gerrans is +its name--a fishing village. You get there from Falmouth by boat. The +fare is "--(I regret to say my memory is not so accurate as his in the +matter of pennies), "and mind you don't pay one farthing more. Then you +have to drive across country; the distance is--and the fare per mile--" +(Alas! again I have totally forgotten.) "They'll be sure to ask you +double the money, but never you mind! refuse to pay it, and they'll +give in. You must always hold your own against extortion in Cornwall." + +I thanked him, with a slightly troubled mind. But I have always noticed +that in travelling "with such measure as ye mete it shall be meted +to you again," and that those who come to a country expecting to be +cheated generally are cheated. Having still a lingering belief in human +nature, and especially in Cornish nature, I determined to set down the +old gentleman's well-meant advice for what it was worth, no more, and +cease to perplex myself about it. For which resolve I have since been +exceedingly thankful. + +He gave us, however, much supplementary advice which was rather useful, +and parted from us in the friendliest fashion, with that air of bland +complaisance natural to those who assume the character of adviser in +general. + +"Mind you go to Gerrans. They'll not take you in more than they do +everywhere else, and you'll find it a healthy place, and a quiet +place--as quiet, I say, as your grave. It will make you feel exactly as +if you were dead and buried." + +That not being the prominent object of our tour in Cornwall, we thanked +him again, but as soon as he left the carriage determined among +ourselves to take no further steps about visiting Gerrans. + +[Illustration: VIEW OF FLUSHING FROM THE GREEN BANK HOTEL, FALMOUTH.] + +However, in spite of the urgency of another fellow-traveller--it is +always good to hear everybody's advice, and follow your own--we carried +our love of quietness so far that we eschewed the magnificent new +Falmouth Hotel, with its _table d'hôte_, lawn tennis ground, sea baths +and promenade, for the old-fashioned Green Bank, which though it had no +green banks, boasted, we had been told, a pleasant little sea view and +bay view, and was a resting-place full of comfort and homely peace. + +Which we found true, and would have liked to stay longer in its +pleasant shelter, which almost conquered our horror of hotels; but we +had now fairly weighed anchor and must sail on. + +"You ought to go at once to the Lizard," said the friend who met us, +and did everything for us at Falmouth--and the remembrance of whom, and +of all that happened in our brief stay, will make the very name of the +place sound sweet in our ears for ever. "The Lizard is the real point +for sightseers, almost better than the Land's End. Let us see if we can +hear of lodgings." + +She made inquiries, and within half an hour we did hear of some most +satisfactory ones. "The very thing! We will telegraph at once--answer +paid," said this good genius of practicality, as sitting in her +carriage she herself wrote the telegram and despatched it. Telegrams to +the Lizard! We were not then at the Ultima Thule of civilisation. + +"Still," she said, "you had better provide yourself with some food, +such as groceries and hams. You can't always get what you want at the +Lizard." + +So, having the very dimmest idea what the Lizard was--whether a town, +a village, or a bare rock--when we had secured the desired lodgings +("quite ideal lodgings," remarked our guardian angel), I proceeded to +lay in a store of provisions, doing it as carefully as if fitting out +a ship for the North Pole--and afterwards found out it was a work of +supererogation entirely. + +The next thing to secure was an "ideal" carriage, horse, and man, which +our good genius also succeeded in providing. And now, our minds being +at rest, we were able to write home a fixed address for a week, and +assure our expectant and anxious friends that all was going well with +us. + +Then, after a twilight wander round the quaint old town--so like a +foreign town--and other keen enjoyments, which, as belonging to the +sanctity of private life I here perforce omit, we laid us down to +sleep, and slept in peace, having really achieved much; considering it +was only the first day of our journey. + + + + +DAY THE SECOND + + +Is there anything more delightful than to start on a smiling morning +in a comfortable carriage, with all one's _impedimenta_ (happily not +much!) safely stowed away under one's eyes, with a good horse, over +which one's feelings of humanity need not be always agonising, and a +man to drive, whom one can trust to have as much sense as the brute, +especially in the matter of "refreshment." Our letters that morning had +brought us a comico-tragic story of a family we knew, who, migrating +with a lot of children and luggage, and requiring to catch a train +thirteen miles off, had engaged a driver who "refreshed himself" so +successfully at every public-house on the way, that he took five hours +to accomplish the journey, and finally had to be left at the road-side, +and the luggage transferred to another vehicle, which of course lost +the train. We congratulated ourselves that no such disaster was likely +to happen to us. + +"Yes; I've been a teetotaller all my life," said our driver, a +bright-looking, intelligent young fellow, whom, as he became rather a +prominent adjunct to our life and decidedly to our comfort, I shall +individualise by calling him Charles. "I had good need to avoid +drinking. My father drank through a small property. No fear of me, +ma'am." + +So at once between him and us, or him and "we," according to the +Cornish habit of transposing pronouns, was established a feeling of +fraternity, which, during the six days that we had to do with him, +deepened into real regard. Never failing when wanted, never presuming +when not wanted, straightforward, independent, yet full of that +respectful kindliness which servants can always show and masters +should always appreciate, giving us a chivalrous care, which, being +"unprotected females," was to us extremely valuable, I here record that +much of the pleasure of our tour was owing to this honest Cornishman, +who served us, his horse, and his master--he was one of the employés of +a livery-stable keeper--with equal fidelity. + +Certainly, numerous as were the parties he had driven--("I go to the +Lizard about three times a week," he said)--Charles could seldom have +driven a merrier trio than that which leisurely mounted the upland road +from Falmouth, leading to the village of Constantine. + +"Just turn and look behind you, ladies" (we had begged to be shown +everything and told everything); "isn't that a pretty view?" + +It certainly was. From the high ground we could see Falmouth with its +sheltered bay and glittering sea beyond. Landward were the villages of +Mabe and Constantine, with their great quarries of granite, and in the +distance lay wide sweeps of undulating land, barren and treeless, but +still beautiful--not with the rich pastoral beauty of our own Kent, yet +having a charm of its own. And the air, so fresh and pure, yet soft and +balmy, it felt to tender lungs like the difference between milk and +cream. To breathe became a pleasure instead of a pain. I could quite +understand how the semi-tropical plants that we had seen in a lovely +garden below, grew and flourished, how the hydrangeas became huge +bushes, and the eucalyptus an actual forest tree. + +But this was in the sheltered valley, and we had gained the hill-top, +emerging out of one of those deep-cut lanes peculiar to Devon and +Cornwall, and so pretty in themselves, a perfect garden of wild flowers +and ferns, except that they completely shut out the view. This did not +much afflict the practical minds of my two juniors. Half an hour before +they had set up a shout-- + +"Stop the carriage! _Do_ stop the carriage! Just look there! Did you +ever see such big blackberries? and what a quantity! Let us get out; +we'll gather them for to-morrow's pudding." + +Undoubtedly a dinner earned is the sweetest of all dinners. I remember +once thinking that our cowslip tea (I should not like to drink it +now) was better than our grandmother's best Bohea or something out +of her lovely old tea-caddy. So the carriage, lightened of all but +myself, crawled leisurely up and waited on the hill-top for the busy +blackberry-gatherers. + +While our horse stood cropping an extempore meal, I and his driver +began to talk about him and other cognate topics, including the +permanent one of the great advantage to both body and soul in being +freed all one's life long from the necessity of getting "something to +drink" stronger than water. + +[Illustration: A FISHERMAN'S CELLAR NEAR THE LIZARD.] + +"Yes," he said, "I find I can do as much upon tea or coffee as other +men upon beer. I'm just as strong and as active, and can stand weather +quite as well. It's a pretty hard life, winter and summer, driving all +day, coming in soaked, sometimes in the middle of the night, having to +turn in for an hour or two, and then turn out again. And you must look +after your horse, of course, before you think of yourself. Still, I +stand it well, and that without a drop of beer from years end to years +end." + +I congratulated and sympathised; in return for which Charles entered +heart and soul into the blackberry question, pointed out where the +biggest blackberries hung, and looked indeed--he was still such a young +fellow!--as if he would have liked to go blackberry-hunting himself. + +I put, smiling, the careless question, "Have you any little folks of +your own? Are you married?" + +How cautious one should be over an idle word! All of a sudden the +cheerful face clouded, the mouth began to quiver, with difficulty I +saw he kept back the tears. It was a version in every-day life of +Longfellow's most pathetic little poem, "The Two Locks of Hair." + +"My wife broke her heart after the baby, I think. It died. She went off +in consumption. It's fifteen months now"--(he had evidently counted +them)--"fifteen months since I have been alone. I didn't like to give +up my home and my bits of things; still, when a man has to come in wet +and tired to an empty house----" + +He turned suddenly away and busied himself over his horse, for just +that minute the two girls came running back, laughing heartily, and +showing their baskets full of "the very biggest blackberries you ever +saw!" I took them back into the carriage; the driver mounted his box, +and drove on for some miles in total silence. As, when I had whispered +that little episode to my two companions, so did we. + +There are two ways of going from Falmouth to the Lizard--the regular +route through the town of Helstone, and another, a trifle longer, +through the woods of Trelowarren, the seat of the old Cornish family of +Vyvyan. + +"I'll take you that road, ma'am, it's much the prettiest," said Charles +evidently exerting himself to recover his cheerful looks and be the +civil driver and guide, showing off all the curiosities and beauties +of the neighbourhood. And very pretty Trelowarren was, though nothing +remarkable to us who came from the garden of England. Still, the trees +were big--for Cornwall, and in the ferny glade grew abundantly the +_Osmunda regalis_, a root of which we greatly coveted, and Charles +offered to get. He seemed to take a pride in showing us everything, +except what he probably did not know of, and which, when I heard of +too late, was to me a real regret. + +At Trelowarren, not far from the house, are a series of subterranean +chambers and galleries, in all ninety feet long and about the height +of a man. The entrance is very low. Still it is possible to get into +them and traverse them from end to end, the walls being made of blocks +of unhewn stone, leaning inward towards the roof, which is formed of +horizontal blocks. How, when, and for what purpose this mysterious +underground dwelling was made, is utterly lost in the mists of time. +I should exceedingly have liked to examine it, and to think we passed +close by and never knew of it will always be a certain regret, of which +I relieve my mind by telling it for the guidance of other archæological +travellers. + +One of the charms of Cornwall is that it gives one the sense of being +such an old country, as if things had gone exactly as they do now, not +merely since the days of King Arthur, but for ever so long before then. +The Romans, the Ph[oe]nicians, nay, the heroes of pre-historic ages, +such as Jack the Giantkiller and the giant Cormoran, seemed to be not +impossible myths, as we gradually quitted civilisation in the shape of +a village or two, and a few isolated farm-houses, and came out upon the +wild district known as Goonhilly Down. + +Certainly not from its hills, for it is as flat as the back of your +hand, and as bare. But the word, which is old Cornish--that now extinct +tongue, which only survives in the names of places and people--means a +_hunting ground_; and there is every reason to believe that this wide +treeless waste was once an enormous forest, full of wild beasts. There +St. Rumon, an Irish bishop, long before there were any Saxon bishops +or saints, is said to have settled, far away from the world, and made +a cell and oratory, the memory of which, and of himself, is still kept +up by the name of the two villages, Ruan Major and Ruan Minor, on the +outskirts of this Goonhilly Down. + +In later times the down was noted for a breed of small, strong ponies, +called "Goonhillies." Charles had heard of them, but I do not suppose +he had ever heard of St. Rumon, or of the primeval forest. At present, +the fauna of Goonhilly is represented by no animal more dangerous +than a rabbit or a field-mouse, and its vegetation includes nothing +bigger than the _erica vagans_--the lovely Cornish heath, lilac, +flesh-coloured and white which will grow nowhere else, except in a +certain district of Portugal. + +"There it is!" we cried, at the pleasant first sight of a new flower: +for though not scientific botanists, we have what I may call a speaking +acquaintance with almost every wild flower that grows. To see one that +we had never seen before was quite an excitement. Instantly we were out +of the carriage, and gathering it by handfuls. + +Botanists know this heath well--it has the peculiarity of the anthers +being outside instead of inside the bell--but we only noticed the +beauty of it, the masses in which it grew, and how it would grow only +within a particular line--the sharp geological line of magnesian earth, +which forms the serpentine district. Already we saw, forcing itself +up through the turf, blocks of this curious stone, and noticed how +cottage-walls were built, and fences made of it. + +"Yes, that's the serpentine," said Charles, now in his depth once more; +we could not have expected him to know about St. Rumon, &c. "You'll see +plenty of it when you get to the Lizard. All the coast for miles and +miles is serpentine. Such curious rocks, reddish and greenish; they +look so pretty when the water washes against them, and when polished, +and made into ornaments, candlesticks, brooches and the like. But I'll +show you the shops as we pass. We shall be at Lizard Town directly." + +So it was a town, and it had shops. We should not have thought so, +judging by the slender line of white dots which now was appearing on +the horizon--Cornish folk seemed to have a perfect mania for painting +their houses a glistening white. Yes, that was the Lizard; we were +nearing our journey's end. At which we were a little sorry, even though +already an hour or two behind-hand--that is, behind the hour we had +ordered dinner. But "time was made for slaves"--and railway travellers, +and we were beyond railways. + +"Never mind, what does dinner matter?" (It did not seriously, as we had +taken the precaution, which I recommend to all travellers, of never +starting on any expedition without a good piece of bread, a bunch of +raisins, and a flask of cold tea or coffee.) "What's the odds so long +as you're happy? Let us linger and make the drive as long as we can. +The horse will not object, nor Charles either." + +Evidently not; our faithful steed cropped contentedly an extempore +meal, and Charles, who would have scrambled anywhere or dug up anything +"to please the young ladies," took out his pocket-knife, and devoted +himself to the collection of all the different coloured heaths; roots +which we determined to send home in the hope, alas! I fear vain, that +they would grow in our garden, afar from their native magnesia. + +[Illustration: THE CORNISH COAST: FROM YNYS HEAD TO BEAST POINT.] + +So for another peaceful hour we stayed; wandering about upon Goonhilly +Down. How little it takes to make one happy, when one wants to be +happy, and knows enough of the inevitable sorrows of life to be glad to +be happy--as long as fate allows. Each has his burthen to bear, seen or +unseen by the world outside, and some of us that day had not a light +one; yet was it a bright day, a white day, a day to be thankful for. + +Nor did it end when, arriving at the "ideal" lodgings, and being +received with a placidity which we felt we had not quite deserved, and +fed in a manner which reflected much credit not only on the cook's +skill, but her temper--we sallied out to see the place. + +Not a picturesque place exactly. A high plain, with the sparkling sea +beyond it; the principal object near being the Lizard Lights, a huge +low building, with a tower at either side, not unlike the Sydenham +Crystal palace, only dazzling white, as every building apparently was +at the Lizard. + +"We'll go out and adventure," cried the young folks; and off +they started down the garden, over a stile--made of serpentine +of course--and across what seemed a field, till they disappeared +mysteriously where the line of sea cut the line of cliffs, and were +heard of no more for two hours. + +Then they returned, all delight and excitement. They had found such +a lovely little cove, full of tiny pools, a perfect treasure-house +of sea-weeds and sea-anemones; and the rocks, so picturesque, and +"so grand to scramble over." (I must confess that to these, my +practically-minded "chickens," the picturesque or the romantic always +ranked second to the fun of a scramble.) The descent to this marine +paradise also seemed difficult enough to charm anybody. + +"But _you_ wouldn't do it. Quite impossible! You would break all your +legs and arms, and sprain both your ankles." + +Alas, for a hen--and an old hen--with ducklings! But mine, though +daring, were not rash, and had none of that silly fool-hardiness +which for the childish vanity of doing, or of saying one has done, a +dangerous thing, risks health, comfort, life, and delights selfishly +in making other people utterly miserable. So, being feeble on my feet, +though steady in my head, I agreed to sit like a cormorant on the +nearest cliff, and look down placidly upon the young adventurers in +their next delightful scramble. + +It could not be to-night, however, for the tide was coming in fast; the +fairy cove would soon be all under water. + +"Shall we get a boat? It will soon be sunset and moon-rise; we can +watch both from the sea." + +That sea! Its broad circle had no other bound than the shores of +America, and its blueness, or the strange, changing tint often called +blue, almost equalled the blue of the Mediterranean. + +"Yes, ma'am, it's a fine evening for a row," said the faithful Charles. +"And it isn't often you can get a row here; the sea is so rough, and +the landing so difficult. But there's a man I know; he has a good +boat, he knows the coast well, and he'll not go out unless it's really +safe." + +This seemed ultra-prudent, with such a smiling sky and sea; but we +soon found it was not unnecessary at the Lizard. Indeed all along the +Cornish coast the great Atlantic waves come in with such a roll or a +heavy ground-swell, windless, but the precursor of a storm that is +slowly arriving from across the ocean, that boating here at best is no +child's play. + +We had been fair-weather sailors, over shut-in lochs or smooth rivers; +all of us could handle an oar, or had handled it in old days, but +this was a different style of thing. Descending the steep zigzag path +to the next cove--the only one where there was anything like a fair +landing--we found we still had to walk through a long bed of sea-weed, +and manage somehow to get into the boat between the recoil and advance +of a wave. Not one of the tiny waves of quiet bays, but an Atlantic +roller, which, even if comparatively small and tame, comes in with a +force that will take you off your feet at any time. + +However, we managed it, and found ourselves floating among an +archipelago of rocks, where the solemn cormorants sat in rows, and +affectionate families of gulls kept swimming about in a large flotilla +of white dots on the dark water. Very dark the sea was: heaving and +sinking in great hills and valleys, which made rowing difficult. Also, +for several yards round every rock extended a perfect whirlpool of +foaming waves, which, if any boat chanced to be caught therein, would +have dashed it to pieces in no time. But our boatmen seemed used to the +danger, and took us as near it as possible, without actually running +into it. + +They were both far from commonplace-looking men, especially the elder, +our stroke-oar. Being rather given to ethnological tastes, we had +already noticed the characteristic Cornish face, not unlike the Norman +type, and decidedly superior to that of the inland counties of England. +But this was a face by itself, which would have attracted any artist or +student of human nature; weather-beaten, sharp-lined, wrinkled as it +was--the man must have been fully sixty--there was in it a sweetness, +an absolute beauty, which struck us at once. The smile, placid and +paternal, came often, though words were few; and the keen, kindly eyes +were blue as a child's, or as Tennyson describes King Arthur's. + +"I can imagine," whispered one of us who had imaginative tendencies, +"that King Arthur might have looked thus, had he lived to grow old." + +"I don't believe King Arthur ever lived at all," was the knock-me-down +utilitarian answer, to which the other had grown accustomed and +indifferent. Nevertheless, there was such a refinement about the man, +spite of his rough fisherman's dress, and he had been so kind to the +young folks, so considerate to "the old lady," as Cornish candour +already called me, that, intending to employ him again, we asked his +name. + +"John Curgenven." + +"John what?" We made several hopeless plunges at it, and finally asked +him to spell it. + +"Cur-gen-ven," said he; adding, with a slight air of pride, "one of the +oldest families in Cornwall." + +(I have no hesitation in stating this, because, when we afterwards +became great friends, I told John Curgenven I should probably "put +him in a book"--if he had no objection. To which he answered with his +usual composure, "No, he did not think it would harm him." He evidently +considered "writing a book" was a very inferior sort of trade.) + +But looking at him, one could not help speculating as to how far the +legend of King Arthur had been really true, and whether the type of +man which Tennyson has preserved--or created--in this his "own ideal +knight," did once exist, and still exists, in a modified modern form, +throughout Cornwall. A fancy upon which we then only argued; now I, at +least, am inclined to believe it. + +"There is Lord Brougham's head, his wig and his turn-up nose, you can +see all distinctly. At least, you could if there was light enough." + +But there was not light, for the sun was setting, and the moon only +just rising. Black looked the heaving sea, except where rings of white +foam encircled each group of rocks, blacker still. And blackest of all +looked the iron-bound coast, sharp against the amber western sky. + +"Yes, that's Kynance Cove, and the Gull Rock and Asparagus Island. +Shall we row there? It's only about two miles." + +Two miles there, and two back, through this angry sea, and then to land +in the dim light about 9 p.m.! Courage failed us. We did not own this; +we merely remarked that we would rather see Kynance by daylight, but I +think each of us felt a sensation of relief when the boat's head was +turned homewards. + +Yet how beautiful it all was! Many a night afterwards we watched +the same scene, but never lovelier than that night, the curved line +of coast traceable distinctly up to Mount's Bay, and then the long +peninsula which they told us was the Land's End, stretching out into +the horizon, where sea and sky met in a mist of golden light, through +which the sun was slowly dropping right from the sky into the sea. +Beyond was a vague cloud-land, which might be the fair land of Lyonesse +itself, said still to lie there submerged, with all its cities and +towers and forests; or the "island-valley of Avillion," whither Arthur +sailed with the three queens to be healed of his "grievous wound," and +whence he is to come again some day. Popular superstition still expects +him, and declares that he haunts this coast even now in the shape of a +Cornish chough. + +Modern ghosts, too, exist, decidedly more alarming. + +"Look up there, ladies, that green slope is Pistol Meadow. Nobody likes +to walk there after dark. Other things walk as well." + +"What things?" + +"Two hundred and more of foreign sailors, whose ship went to pieces in +the little cove below. They're buried under the green mounds you see. +Out of a crew of seven hundred only two men were washed ashore alive, +and they were in irons, which the captain had put on them because +they said he was going too near in shore. It was called Pistol Meadow +because most of 'em were found with pistols in their hands, which may +have been true or may not, since it happened more than a hundred years +ago. However, there are the green mounds, you see, and Lizard folk +don't much like passing the place after dark." + +"But you?" + +John Curgenven smiled. "Oh, us and the coast-guards! Us goes anywhere, +at all hours, and never meets nothing. D'ye see those white marks all +along the coast every few yards? They're rocks, kept white-washed, to +guide the men of dark nights between here and Kynance. It's a ticklish +path, when all's as black as pitch, with a stiff wind blowing." + +I should think it was! One almost shuddered at the idea, and then +felt proud of the steady heads and cool courage of these coast-guard +men--always the pick of the service, true Englishmen, fearless +and faithful--the business of whose whole lives is to save other +lives--that is, now that smuggling has abated, and those dreadful +stories once current all along the coast of Cornwall have become +mostly legends of the past. No tales of wreckers, or of fights between +smugglers and revenue officers, reached our ears, but the stories of +shipwrecks were endless. Every winter, and many times through the +winter, some ghastly tragedy had happened. Every half-mile along this +picturesque shore was recorded the place where some good ship went to +pieces, often with the brief addendum, "all hands lost." + +"The sun's just setting. Look out for the Lizard Lights," called out +Charles, who sat in the bow of the boat in faithful attendance upon his +"ladies,"--another Knight of the Round Table in humble life--we met +many such in Cornwall. "Look! There they are." + +And sure enough, the instant the sun's last spark was quenched in +the sea, into which he dropped like a red round ball, out burst two +substitute suns, and very fair substitutes too, making the poor little +moon in the east of no importance whatever. The gleam of them extended +far out upon the darkening ocean, and we could easily believe that +their light was "equal to 20,000 candles," and that they were seen out +at sea to a distance of twenty, some said even thirty, miles. + +"Except in a fog; and the fogs at the Lizard are very bad. Then you +can see nothing, not even the Lights, but they keep sounding the +fog-horn every minute or so. It works by the same machinery as works +the Lights--a big steam-engine; you can hear it bum-bumming now, if you +listen." + +So we could, a mysterious noise like that of a gigantic bumble-bee, +coming across the water from that curious building, long and white, +with its two towers and those great eyes in each of them, at either end. + +"They're wonderful bright;" said John Curgenven; "many's the time I've +sat and read my newspaper by them a quarter of a mile off. They're seen +through the blackest night, the blacker the brighter, seen through +everything--except fog. Now, ladies, d'ye think you can jump ashore?" + +Some of us did, airily enough, though it required to choose your +moment pretty cleverly so as to escape the incoming wave. And some of +us--well, we accepted the inevitable, and were only too thankful to +scramble anyhow, wet or dry, on terra firma. + +And then we had to ascend the zigzag path, slippery with loose stones, +and uncertainly seen in the dim half-twilight, half-moonlight. At +last we came out safe by the life-boat house, which we had noticed in +passing, with the slit in its door for "Contributions," and a notice +below that the key was kept at such and such a house--I forget the +man's name--"and at the Rectory." + +[Illustration: THE LIZARD LIGHTS BY NIGHT.] + +"Yes," said Curgenven, "in many places along this coast, when there's a +wreck, and we're called out, the parson's generally at the head of us. +Volunteers? Of course we're all volunteers, except the coast-guard, who +are paid. But they're often glad enough of us and of our boats too. The +life-boat isn't enough. They keep her here, the only place they can, +but it's tough work running her down to the beach on a black winter's +night, with a ship going to pieces before your eyes, as ships do here +in no time. I've seen it myself--watched her strike, and in ten minutes +there was not a bit of her left." + +We could well imagine it. Even on this calm evening the waves kept +dashing themselves against every rock with a roar and a swell and a +circle of boiling foam. What must it be on a stormy winter night, or +through the deathly quiet of a white mist, with nothing visible or +audible except the roar of the waters and the shriek of the fog-horn! + +"I think it's full time we were in-doors," suggested a practical and +prudent little voice; "we can come again and see it in the daylight. +Here's the road." + +"That's the way you came, Miss," said Charles, "but I can take you a +much shorter one on the top of the hedges"--or edges, we never quite +knew which they were, though on the whole the letter _h_ is tolerably +well treated in Cornwall. + +These "hedges" were startling to any one not Cornish-born. In the +Lizard district the divisions of land are made not by fences, but by +walls, built in a peculiar fashion, half stones, half earth, varying +from six to ten feet high, and about two feet broad. On the top of this +narrow giddy path, fringed on either side by deceitful grass, you are +expected to walk!--in fact, are obliged to walk, for there is often no +other road. There was none here. + +I looked round in despair. Once upon a time I could have walked upon +walls as well as anybody, but now--! + +"I'll help you, ma'am; and I'm sure you can manage it," said Charles +consolingly. "It's only three-quarters of a mile." + +Three-quarters of a mile along a two-foot path on the top of a wall, +and in this deceitful light, when one false step would entail a certain +fall. And at my age one doesn't fall exactly like a feather or an +india-rubber ball. + +"Ma'am, if you go slow and steady, with me before and Curgenven behind, +you'll _not_ fall." + +Nor did I. I record it with gratitude to those two honest men--true +_gentlemen_, such as I have found at times in all ranks--who never +once grumbled or relaxed in their care of their tardy and troublesome +charge; one instance more of that kindly courtesy which it does any +man good to offer, and which any woman, "lady" though she be, may feel +proud to receive. + +When we reached "home," as we had already begun to call it, a smiling +face and a comfortable tea justified the word. And when we retired, +a good deal fatigued, but quite happy, we looked out upon the night, +where the fiery stream of the Lizard Lights was contending with the +brightest of harvest moons. It was a hopeful ending of our second day. + +[Illustration: CORNISH FISH.] + + + + +DAY THE THIRD + + +"And a beautiful day it is, ladies, though it won't do for Kynance." + +Only 8 a.m., yet there stood the faithful Charles, hat in hand, having +heard that his ladies were at breakfast, and being evidently anxious +that they should not lose an hour of him and his carriage, which were +both due at Falmouth to-night. For this day was Saturday, and we were +sending him home for Sunday. + +"As I found out last night, the tide won't suit for Kynance till +Wednesday or Thursday, and you'll be too tired to walk much to-day. +I've been thinking it all over. Suppose I were to drive you to Kennack +Sands, back by the serpentine works to Cadgwith, and home to dinner? +Then after dinner I'll give the horse a rest for two hours, and take +you to Mullion; we can order tea at Mary Mundy's, and go on to the cove +as far as I can get with the carriage. I'll leave it at the farm and be +in time to help you over the rocks to see the caves, run ahead and meet +you again with the carriage, and drive you back to Mary Mundy's. You +can have tea and be home in the moonlight before nine o'clock." + +"And you?" we asked, a good deal bewildered by this carefully-outlined +plan and all the strange names of places and people, yet not a little +touched by the kindly way in which we were "taken in and done for" by +our faithful squire of dames. + +"Me, ma'am? Oh, after an hour or two's rest the horse can start +again--say at midnight, and be home by daylight. Or we could go to bed +and be up early at four, and still get to Falmouth by eight, in time +for the church work. Don't you trouble about us, we'll manage. He" (the +other and four-footed half of the "we") "is a capital animal, and he'd +get much harder work than this if he was at home." + +So we decided to put ourselves entirely in the hands of Charles, +who seemed to have our interest so much at heart, and yet evinced a +tenderness over his horse that is not too common among hired drivers. +We promised to be ready in half an hour, so as to waste nothing of this +lovely day, in which we had determined to enjoy ourselves. + +Who could help it? It was delightful to wake up early and refreshed, +and come down to this sunshiny, cheerful breakfast-table, where, though +nothing was grand, all was thoroughly comfortable. + +"I'm sure you're very kind, ladies, to be so pleased with everything," +apologised our bright-looking handmaiden; "and since you really wish +to keep this room"--a very homely parlour which we had chosen in +preference to a larger one, because it looked on the sea--"I only wish +things was better for you; still, if you can make shift--" + +Well, if travellers cannot "make shift" with perfectly clean tidy +rooms, well-cooked plain food, and more than civil, actually kindly, +attendance, they ought to be ashamed of themselves! So we declared we +would settle down in the evidently despised little parlour. + +It was not an æsthetic apartment, certainly. The wall-paper and carpet +would have driven Morris and Co. nearly frantic; the furniture--mere +chairs and a table--belonged "to the year one"--but (better than many +modern chairs and tables) you could sit down upon the first and dine +upon the second, in safety. There was no sofa, so we gladly accepted +an offered easy-chair, and felt that all really useful things were now +ours. + +But the ornamental? There was a paper arrangement in the grate, and +certain vases on the chimney-piece which literally made our hair stand +on end! After a private consultation as to how far we might venture, +without wounding the feelings of our landlady, we mildly suggested that +"perhaps we could do without these ornaments." All we wanted in their +stead were a few jars, salt-jars or jam-pots, in which to arrange our +wild flowers, of which yesterday the girls had gathered a quantity. + +The exchange was accepted, though with some surprise. But when, half +an hour afterwards, the parlour appeared quite transformed, decorated +in every available corner with brilliant autumn flowers--principally +yellow--intermixed with the lovely Cornish heath; when, on some excuse +or other, the hideous "ornament for your fire-stoves" was abolished, +and the grate filled with a mass of green fern and grey sea-holly--I +know no combination more exquisite both as to colour and form--then we +felt that we could survive, at least for a week, even if shut up within +this humble room, innocent of the smallest attraction as regarded art, +music, or literature. + +But without doors? There Nature beat Art decidedly. + +What a world it was! Literally swimming in sunshine, from the sparkling +sea in the distance, to the beds of marigolds close by--huge marigolds, +double and single, mingled with carnations that filled the air with +rich autumnal scent, all the more delicious because we feel it is +autumnal, and therefore cannot last. It was a very simple garden, +merely a square grass-plot with a walk and a border round it, and its +only flowers were these marigolds, carnations, with quantities of +mignonette, and bounded all round with a hedge of tamarisk; yet I think +we shall always remember it as if it were the Garden of Armida--without +a Tancred to spoil it! + +For--under the rose--one of the pleasures of our tour was that it was +so exclusively feminine. We could feed as we liked, dress as we liked, +talk to whom we liked, without any restriction, from the universal +masculine sense of dignity and decorum in travelling. We felt ourselves +unconventional, incognito, able to do exactly as we chose, provided we +did nothing wrong. + +So off we drove through Lizard Town into the "wide, wide world;" and +I repeat, what a world it was! Full filled with sunlight, and with an +atmosphere so fresh and bracing, yet so dry and mild and balmy, that +every breath was a pleasure to draw. We had felt nothing like it since +we stood on the top of the highest peak in the Island of Capri, looking +down on the blue Mediterranean. But this sea was equally blue, the sky +equally clear, yet it was home--dear old England, so often misprized. +Yet, I believe, when one does get really fine English weather, there is +nothing like it in the whole world. + +The region we traversed was not picturesque--neither mountains, nor +glens, nor rivers, nor woods; all was level and bare, for the road lay +mostly inland, until we came out upon Kennack Sands. + +They might have been the very "yellow sands" where Shakespeare's elves +were bidden to "take hands" and "foot it featly here and there." You +might almost have searched for the sea-maids' footsteps along the +smooth surface where the long Atlantic waves crept harmlessly in, +making a glittering curve, and falling with a gentle "thud"--the only +sound in the solitary bay, until all at once we caught voices and +laughter, and from among some rock, emerged a party of girls. + +They had evidently come in a cart, which took up its station beside +our carriage, laden with bundles which looked uncommonly like bathing +gowns; and were now seeking a convenient dressing-room--one of +those rock-parlours, roofed with serpentine and floored with silver +sand--which are the sole bathing establishments here. + +All along the Cornish coast the bathing is delightful--when you can +get it; but sometimes for miles and miles the cliffs rise in a huge +impregnable wall, without a single break. Then perhaps there comes a +sudden cleft in the rock, a green descent, possibly with a rivulet +trickling through it, and leading to a sheltered cove or a sea-cave, +accessible only at low water, but one of the most delicious little +nooks that could be imagined. Kynance, we were told, with its "kitchen" +and "drawing-room," was the most perfect specimen of the kind; but +Kennack was sufficiently lovely. With all sorts of fun, shouting, and +laughter, the girls disappeared to their evidently familiar haunts, to +reappear as merry mermaids playing about in a crystalline sea. + +A most tantalising sight to my two, who vowed never again to attempt +a day's excursion without taking bathing dresses, towels, and the +inevitable fish-line, to be tied round the waist,--with a mother +holding the other end. For we had been warned against these long and +strong Atlantic waves, the recoil of which takes you off your feet even +in calm weather. As bathing must generally be done at low water, to +ensure a sandy floor and a comfortable cave, it is easy enough to be +swept out of one's depth; and the cleverest swimmer, if tossed about +among these innumerable rocks circled round by eddies of boiling white +water, would have small chance of returning with whole bones, or of +returning at all. + +Indeed, along this Cornish coast, life and death seem very near +together. Every pleasure carries with it a certain amount of risk; the +utmost caution is required both on land and sea, and I cannot advise +either rash or nervous people to go travelling in Cornwall. + +Bathing being impracticable, we consoled ourselves with ascending the +sandy hillock, which bounded one side of the bay, and sat looking from +it towards the coast-line eastwards. + +[Illustration: POLTESCO.] + +What a strange peace there is in a solitary shore, an empty sea, for +the one or two white dots of silent ships seemed rather to add to than +diminish its loneliness--lonelier in sunshine, I think, than even in +storm. The latter gives a sense of human life, of struggle and of +pain; while the former is all repose, the bright but solemn repose of +infinity or eternity. + +But these thoughts were for older heads; the only idea of the young +heads--uncommonly steady they must have been!--was of scrambling +into the most inaccessible places, and getting as near to the sea as +possible without actually tumbling into it. After a while the land +attracted them in turn, and they came back with their hands full of +flowers, some known, some unknown; great bunches of honeysuckle, +curious sand-plants, and cliff-plants; also water-plants, which fringed +a little rivulet that ran into the bay, while, growing everywhere +abundantly, was the lovely grey-green cringo, or sea-holly. + +All these treasures, to make the parlour pretty, required much +ingenuity to carry home safely, the sun withered them so fast. But +there was the pleasure of collecting. + +We could willingly have stayed here all day--how natural is that wish +of poor young Shelley, that in every pretty place he saw he might +remain "for ever"!--but the forenoon was passing, and we had much to +see. + +"Poltesco, everybody goes to Poltesco," observed the patient Charles. + +So of course we went there too. At Poltesco are the principal +serpentine works--the one commerce of the district. The monotonous hum +of its machinery mingled oddly with the murmur of a trout-stream which +ran through the pretty little valley, crossed by a wooden bridge, where +a solitary angler stood fishing in imperturbable content. + +There were only about a dozen workmen visible; one of whom came +forward and explained to us the mode of work, afterwards taking us +to the show-room, which contained everything possible to be made of +serpentine, from mantelpieces and tombstones, down to brooches and +studs. Very delicate and beautiful was the workmanship; the forms of +some of the things--vases and candlesticks especially--were quite +Pompeian. In truth, throughout Cornwall, we often came upon shapes, +Roman or Greek, proving how even yet relics of its early masters or +colonisers linger in this western corner of England. + +In its inhabitants too. When, as we passed, more than one busy +workman lifted up his head for a moment, we noticed faces almost +classic in type, quite different from the bovine, agricultural +Hodge of the midland counties. In manner different likewise. +There was neither stupidity nor servility, but a sort of dignified +independence. No pressing to buy, no looking out for gratuities, +only a kindly politeness, which did not fail even when we departed, +taking only a few little ornaments. We should have liked to carry off +a cart-load--especially two enormous vases and a chimney-piece--but +travellers have limits to luggage, and purse as well. + +Pretty Poltesco! we left it with regret, but we were in the hands +of the ever-watchful Charles, anxious that we should see as much as +possible. + +"The driving-road goes far inland, but there's a splendid cliff-walk +from Poltesco to Cadgwith direct. The young ladies might do it with a +guide--here he is, a man I know, quite reliable. They'll walk it easily +in half an hour. But you, ma'am, I think you'd better come with me." + +No fighting against fate. So I put my "chickens" in safe charge, meekly +re-entered the carriage, and drove, humbly and alone, across a flat +dull country, diversified here and there by a few cottages, politely +called a village--the two villages of Ruan Minor and Ruan Major. I +afterwards found that they were not without antiquarian interest, that +I might have gone to examine a curious old church, well, and oratory, +supposed to have been inhabited by St. Rumon. But we had left the +guide-book at home, with the so longed-for bathing gowns, and Charles +was not of archæological mind, so I heard nothing and investigated +nothing. + +Except, indeed, numerous huge hand-bills, posted on barn doors and +gates, informing the inhabitants that an Exhibition of Fine Arts, +admittance one shilling, was on view close by. Charles was most anxious +I should stop and visit it, saying it was "very fine." But as within +the last twelvemonth I had seen the Royal Academy, Grosvenor Gallery, +and most of the galleries and museums in Italy, the Fine Art Exhibition +of Ruan Minor was not overwhelmingly attractive. However, not to wound +the good Cornishman, who was evidently proud of it, I explained that, +on the whole, I preferred nature to art. + +And how grand nature was in this fishing-village of Cadgwith, to which +after a long round, we came at last! + +[Illustration: CADGWITH COVE.] + +Nestled snugly in a bend of the coast which shelters it from north +and east, leaving it open to southern sunshine, while another curve +of land protects it from the dense fogs which are so common at the +Lizard, Cadgwith is, summer and winter, one of the pleasantest nooks +imaginable. The climate, Charles told me, is so mild, that invalids +often settle down in the one inn--a mere village inn externally, but +very comfortable. And, as I afterwards heard at Lizard Town, the parson +and his wife--"didn't I know them?" and I felt myself rather looked +down upon because I did not know them--are the kindest of people, +who take pleasure in looking after the invalids, rich or poor. "Yes," +Charles considered Cadgwith was a nice place to winter in, "only just a +trifle dull." + +Probably so, to judge by the interest which, even in this +tourist-season, our carriage excited, as we wound down one side and +up another of the ravine in which the village is built, with a small +fishing-station at the bottom, rather painfully odoriferous. The +fisher-wives came to their doors, the old fisher-men stood, hands in +pockets, the roly-poly healthy fisher-children stopped playing, to +turn round and stare. In these parts everybody stares at everybody, +and generally everybody speaks to everybody--a civil "good-day" at any +rate, sometimes more. + +"This is a heavy pull for you," said a sympathetic old woman, who had +watched me leave the carriage and begin mounting the cliff towards the +Devil's Frying-pan--the principal thing to be seen at Cadgwith. She +followed me, and triumphantly passed me, though she had to carry a bag +of potatoes on her back. I wondered if her feeling was pity or envy +towards another old person who had to carry nothing but her own self. +Which, alas! was enough! + +She and I sat down together on the hill-side and had a chat, while I +waited for the two little black dots which I could see moving round the +opposite headland. She gave me all kinds of information, in the simple +way peculiar to country folk, whose innocent horizon comprises the +whole world, which, may be, is less pleasant than the little world of +Cadgwith. Then we parted for ever and aye. + +The Devil's Frying-pan is a wonderful sight. Imagine a natural +amphitheatre two acres in extent, inclosed by a semi-circular slope +about two hundred feet high, covered with grass and flowers and low +bushes. Outside, the wide, open sea, which pours in to the shingly +beach at the bottom through an arch of serpentine, the colouring of +which, and of the other rocks surrounding it, is most exquisite, +varying from red to green, with sometimes a tint of grey. Were Cadgwith +a little nearer civilisation, what a show-place it would become! + +But happily civilisation leaves it alone. The tiny farm-house on the +hill-side near the Frying-pan looked, within and without, much as it +must have looked for the last hundred years; and the ragged, unkempt, +tongue-tied little girl, from whom we succeeded in getting a drink +of milk in a tumbler which she took five minutes to search for, had +certainly never been to a Board School. She investigated the penny +which we deposited as if it were a great natural curiosity rarely +attainable, and she gazed after us as we climbed the stile leading to +the Frying-pan as if wondering what on earth could tempt respectable +people, who had nothing to do, into such a very uncomfortable place. + +[Illustration: THE DEVIL'S FRYING PAN, NEAR CADGWITH.] + +Uncomfortable, certainly, as we sat with our feet stuck in the long +grass to prevent slipping down the slope--a misadventure which would +have been, to say the least, awkward. Those boiling waves, roaring each +after each through the arch below; and those jagged rocks, round which +innumerable sea-birds were flying--one could quite imagine that were +any luckless vessel to find itself in or near the Frying-pan, it would +never get out again. + +To meditative minds there is something very startling in the perpetual +contrast between the summer tourist-life, so cheerful and careless, +and the winter life of the people here, which must be so full of +privations; for one half the year there is nothing to do, no market +for serpentine, and almost no fishing possible: they have to live +throughout the dark days upon the hay made while the sun shines. + +"No, no," said one of the Lizard folk, whom I asked if there was much +drunkenness thereabout, for I had seen absolutely none; "no, us don't +drink; us can't afford it. Winter's a bad time for we--sometimes for +four months a man doesn't earn a halfpenny. He has to save in summer, +or he'd starve the rest of the year." + +Which apparently is not altogether bad for him. I have seldom seen, +in any part of England or Scotland, such an honest, independent, +respectable race as the working people on this coast, and indeed +throughout Cornwall. + +We left with regret the pretty village, resolving to come back again +in a day or two; it was barely three miles from the Lizard, though the +difference in climate was said to be so great. And then we drove back +across the bleak down and through the keen "hungry" sea-air, which made +dinner a matter of welcome importance. And without dwelling too much +on the delights of the flesh--very mild delights after all--I will say +that the vegetables grown in the garden, and the grapes in the simple +green-house beside it, were a credit to Cornwall, especially so near +the sea-coast. + +We had just time to dine, repose a little, and communicate our address +to our affectionate friends at home--so as to link ourselves for a few +brief days with the outside world--when appeared the punctual Charles. + +"Don't be afraid, ladies, he's had a good rest,"--this was the +important animal about whose well-being we were naturally anxious. +Charles patted his shoulder, and a little person much given to deep +equine affections tenderly stroked his nose. He seemed sensible of the +attention and of what was expected from him, and started off, as lively +as if he had been idle for a week, across the Lizard Down and Pradenack +Down to Mullion. + +"I hope Mary will be at home," said Charles, turning round as usual to +converse; "she'll be sure to make you comfortable. Of course you've +heard of Mary Mundy?" + +Fortunately we had. There was in one of our guide-books a most +glowing description of the Old Inn, and also an extract from a poem, +apostrophising the charms of Mary Mundy. When we said we knew the +enthusiastic Scotch Professor who had written it, we felt that we rose +a step in the estimation of Charles. + +"And Mary will be so pleased to see anybody who knows the +gentleman"--in Cornwall the noted Greek Professor was merely "the +gentleman." "She's got his poem in her visitors' book and his portrait +in her album. I do hope Mary will be at home." + +But fate was against us. When we reached Mullion and drove up to the +door of the Old Inn, there darted out to meet us, not Mary, but an +individual concerning whom Fame has been unjustly silent. + +"It's only Mary's brother," said Charles, with an accent of deep +disappointment. + +But as the honest man who had apparently gone through life as "Mary's +brother" stood patting our horse and talking to our driver, with both +of whom he seemed on terms of equal intimacy, his welcome to ourselves +was such a mixture of cordiality and despair that we could scarcely +keep from laughing. + +"Mary's gone to Helstone, ladies; her would have been delighted, but +her's gone marketing to Helstone. I hope her'll be back soon, for I +doesn't know what to do without she. The house is full, and there's a +party of eleven come to tea, and actually wanting it sent down to them +at the Cove. They won't get it though. And you shall get your tea, +ladies, even if they have to go without." + +We expressed our gratitude, and left Charles to arrange all for us, +which he did in the most practical way. + +"And you think Mary may be back at six?" + +"Her said her would, and I hope her will," answered the brother +despondently. "Her's very seldom out; us can't get on at all without +she." + +This, and several more long and voluble speeches given in broad +Cornish, with the true Cornish confusion of pronouns, and with an air +of piteous perplexity--nay, abject helplessness, the usual helplessness +of man without woman--proved too much for our risible nerves. We +maintained a decorous gravity till we had driven away, and then fell +into shouts of laughter--the innocent laughter of happy-minded people +over the smallest joke or the mildest species of fun. + +"Never mind, ladies, you'll get your tea all right. If Mary said she'd +be back at six, back she'll be. And you'll find a capital tea waiting +for you; there isn't a more comfortable inn in all Cornwall." + +Which, we afterwards found, was saying a great deal. + +Mullion Cove is a good mile from Mullion village, and as we jolted over +the rough road I was remorseful over both carriage and horse. + +"Not at all, ma'am, he's used to it. Often and often he comes here with +pic-nic parties, all the way from Falmouth. I'll put him in at the +farm, and be down with you at the Cove directly. You'll find the rocks +pretty bad walking, but there's a cave which you ought to see. We'll +try it." + +There was no resisting the way the kindly young Cornishman thus +identified himself with our interests, and gave himself all sorts +of extra trouble on our account. And when after a steep and not too +savoury descent--the cove being used as a fish cellar--we found +ourselves on the beach, shut in by those grand rocks of serpentine, +with Mullion Island lying ahead about a quarter of a mile off, we felt +we had not come here for nothing. + +The great feature of Mullion Cove is its sea-caves, of which there are +two, one on the beach, the other round the point, and only accessible +at low water. Now, we saw the tide was rising fast. + +"They'll have to wade; I told them they would have to wade!" cried an +anxious voice behind me; and "I was ware," as ancient chroniclers say, +of the presence of another "old hen," the same whom we had noticed +conducting her brood of chickens, or ducklings--they seemed more like +the latter now--to bathe on Kennack Sands. + +"Yes, they have been away more than half an hour, all my children +except this one"--a small boy who looked as if he wished he had gone +too. "They would go, though I warned them they would have to wade. And +there they are, just going into the cave. One, two, three, four, five, +six," counting the black specks that were seen moving on, or rather in, +the water. "Oh dear, they've _all_ gone in! I wish they were safe out +again." + +[Illustration: MULLION COVE, CORNWALL.] + +Nevertheless, in the midst of her distress, the benevolent lady stopped +to give me a helping hand into the near cave, a long, dark passage, +with light at either end. My girls had already safely threaded it and +come triumphantly out at the other side. But what with the darkness and +the uncertain footing over what felt like beds of damp seaweed, with +occasional stones, through which one had to grope every inch of one's +way, my heart rather misgave me, until I was cheered by the apparition +of the faithful Charles. + +"Don't go back, ma'am, you'll be so sorry afterwards. I'll strike a +light and help you. Slow and steady, you'll come to no harm. And it's +beautiful when you get out at the other end." + +So it was. The most exquisite little nook; where you could have +imagined a mermaid came daily to comb her hair; one can easily believe +in mermaids or anything else in Cornwall. What a charming dressing-room +she would have, shut in on three sides by those great walls of +serpentine, and in front the glittering sea, rolling in upon a floor of +the loveliest silver sand. + +But the only mermaid there was an artist's wife, standing beside her +husband's easel, at which he was painting away so earnestly that he +scarcely noticed us. Very picturesque he looked, and she too, in her +rough serge dress, with her pretty bare feet and ankles, the shoes and +stockings lying in a corner as if they had not been worn for hours. +Why should they be? they were quite unnecessary on those soft sands, +and their owner stood and talked with me as composedly as if it were +the height of the fashion to go barefoot. And far more than anything +concerning herself, she seemed interested in my evident interest in the +picture, which promised to be a remarkably good one, and which, if I +see it on the R. A. walls next year will furnish my only clue to the +identity of the couple, or theirs to mine. + +But the tide was fast advancing; they began to take down the easel, and +I remembered that the narrow winding cave was our only way out from +this rock-inclosed fairy paradise to the prosaic beach. + +"Look, they are wading ashore up to the knees! And we shall have to +wade too if we don't make haste back." + +So cried the perplexed mother of the six too-adventurous ducklings. +But mine, more considerate, answered me from the rocks where they were +scrambling, and helped me back through the cave into safe quarters, +where we stood watching the waders with mingled excitement and--envy? + +Alas! I can still recall the delicious sensation of paddling across the +smooth sea-sand, and of walking up the bed of a Highland burn. But "Oh! +the change twixt Now and Then," I sat calmly on a stone, dry-shod; as +was best. Still, is it not a benign law of nature, that the things we +are no longer able to do, we almost cease to wish to do? Perhaps even +the last cessation of all things will come naturally at the end, as +naturally as we turn round and go to sleep at night? + +But it was not night yet. I am proud to think how high and steep was +the cliff we re-ascended, all three of us, and from which we stood +and looked at sky and sea. Such a sea and such a sky: amber clear, so +that one could trace the whole line of coast--Mount's Bay, with St. +Michael's Mount dotted in the midst of it, and even the Land's End, +beyond which the sun, round and red, was just touching the top of the +waves. We should have liked to watch him drop below them--that splendid +sea-sunset of which one never tires, but we had some distance to walk, +and we began to rejoice in the prospect of Mary Mundy's tea. + +"I'll go on ahead and have the carriage ready," said the ever +thoughtful Charles. "You can't miss your way, ladies. Just follow the +hedges"--that tempting aerial promenade, to which we were now getting +accustomed, becoming veritable Blondins in petticoats--"then cross the +cornfield; and take to the hedges again. You'll be at the farm-yard +directly." + +Not quite--for we lingered, tempted by the abundance of corn-flowers, +of which we gathered, not handfuls but armfuls. When we reached +it, what a picture of an English farm-yard it was! With a regular +old-fashioned English milk-maid--such as Izaak Walton would have loved +to describe--sitting amidst her shining pails, her cows standing round +her, meekly waiting their turn. Sleek, calm creatures they were, +Juno-eyed and soft-skinned--of that peculiar shade of grey which I +have seen only in Cornwall. And, being rather a connoisseur in cows, +I have often amused myself to notice how the kine of each country +have their own predominant colour, which seems to harmonise with its +special landscape. The curious yellow tint of Highland cattle, the red, +white, or brown of those of the midland counties, and the delicate +grey of Cornish cows, alike suit the scene around them, and belong to +it as completely as the dainty little Swiss herds do to their Alpine +pastures, or the large, mild, cream-coloured oxen to the Campagna at +Rome. + +But we had to tear ourselves away from this Arcadia, for in the midst +of the farm-yard appeared the carriage and Charles. So we jolted +back--it seemed as if Cornish carriages and horses could go anywhere +and over everything--to the Old Inn and Mary Mundy. + +She _had_ come home, and everything was right. As we soon found, +everything and everybody was accustomed to be put to rights by Miss +Mary Mundy. + +She stood at the door to greet us--a bright, brown-faced little +woman with the reddest of cheeks and the blackest of eyes; I have no +hesitation in painting her portrait here, as she is, so to speak, +public property, known and respected far and wide. + +[Illustration: A CRABBER'S HOLE, GERRAN'S BAY.] + +"Delighted to see you, ladies; delighted to see any friends of the +Professor's; and I hope you enjoyed the Cove, and that you're all +hungry, and will find your tea to your liking. It's the best we can do; +we're very homely folk here, but we try to make people comfortable," +and so on and so on, a regular stream of chatty conversation, given in +the strongest Cornish, with the kindliest of Cornish hearts, as she +ushered us into a neat little parlour at the back of the inn. + +There lay spread, not one of your dainty afternoon teas, with two or +three wafery slices of bread and butter, but a regular substantial +meal. Cheerful candles--of course in serpentine candlesticks--were +already lit, and showed us the bright teapot full of that welcome drink +to weary travellers, hot, strong and harmless; the gigantic home-baked +loaf, which it seemed sacrilegious to have turned into toast; the rich, +yellow butter--I am sure those lovely cows had something to do with +it, and also with the cream, so thick that the spoon could almost have +stood upright in it. Besides, there was a quantity of that delicious +clotted cream, which here accompanies every meal and of which I had +vainly tried to get the receipt, but was answered with polite scorn, +"Oh, ma'am, it would be of no use to _you_: Cornish cream can only be +made from Cornish cows!" + +Whether this remarkable fact in natural history be true or not, let me +record the perfection of Mary Mundy's cream, which, together with her +jam and her marmalade, was a refection worthy of the gods. + +She pressed us again and again to "have some more," and her charge for +our magnificent meal was as small as her gratitude was great for the +slight addition we made to it. + +"No, I'll not say no, ma'am, it'll come in handy; us has got a young +niece to bring up--my brother and me--please'm. Yes, I'm glad you came, +and I hope you'll come again, please'm. And if you see the Professor, +you'll tell him he's not forgotten, please'm." + +This garniture of "please'm" at the end of every sentence reminded +us of the Venetian "probbedirla," _per ubbedirla_, with which our +gondolier Giovanna used to amuse us, often dragging it in in the oddest +way. "Yes, the Signora will get a beautiful day, probbedirla," or "My +wife has just lost her baby, probbedirla." Mary Mundy's "please'm" +often came in with equal incongruity, and her voluble tongue ran on +nineteen to the dozen; but her talk was so shrewd and her looks so +pleasant--once, no doubt, actually pretty, and still comely enough for +a middle-aged woman--that we departed, fully agreeing with her admiring +Professor that + + "The brightest thing on Cornish land + Is the face of Miss Mary Mundy." + +Recrossing Pradenack down in the dim light of a newly-risen moon, +everything looked so solitary and ghostly that we started to see moving +from behind a furz-bush, a mysterious figure, which crossed the road +slowly, and stood waiting for us. Was it man or ghost, or-- + +Only a donkey! A ridiculous grey donkey. It might have been Tregeagle +himself--Tregeagle, the grim mad-demon of Cornish tradition, once a +dishonest steward, who sold his soul to the devil, and is doomed to +keep on emptying Dozmare Pool, near St. Neots (the same mere wherein +Excalibur was thrown), with a limpet-shell; and to spend his nights in +other secluded places balancing interminable accounts, which are always +just sixpence wrong. + +Poor Tregeagle! I fear some of us, weak in arithmetic, had a secret +sympathy for him! But we never met him--nor anything worse than that +spectral donkey, looming large and placid against the level horizon. + +Soon, "the stars came out by twos and threes,"--promising a fine night +and finer morning, during which, while we were comfortably asleep, +our good horse and man would be driving across this lonely region to +Falmouth, in time to take the good people to church on Sunday morning. + +"And we'll do it, too--don't you be anxious about us, ladies," insisted +Charles. "I'll feed him well, and groom him well. I likes to take care +of a good horse, and you'll see, he'll take no harm. I'll be back when +you want me, at the week's end, or perhaps before then, with some party +or other--we're always coming to the Lizard--and I'll just look in and +see how you're getting on, and how you liked Kynance. But take care of +the tide." + +We thanked our kindly charioteer, bade him and his horse good-bye, +wished him a pleasant journey through the moonlight, which was every +minute growing more beautiful, then went indoors to supper--no! supper +would have been an insult to Mary Mundy's tea--to bed. + + + + +DAY THE FOURTH + + +Sunday, September 4th--and we had started on September 1st; was it +possible we had only been travelling four days? + +It felt like fourteen at least. We had seen so much, taken in so many +new interests--nay, made several new friends. Already we began to plan +another meeting with John Curgenven, who we found was a relation of +our landlady, or of our bright-faced serving maiden, Esther--I forget +which. But everybody seemed connected with everybody at the Lizard, +and everybody took a friendly interest in everybody. The arrival of +new lodgers in the "genteel" parlour which we had not appreciated +was important information, and we were glad to hear that Charles had +started about four in the morning quite cheery. + +And what a morning it was!--a typical Sabbath, a day of rest, a day +to rejoice in. Strolling round the garden at eight o'clock, while the +dew still lay thick on the grass, and glittered like diamonds on the +autumnal spider-webs, even the flowers seemed to know it was Sunday, +the mignonette bed to smell sweeter, the marigolds--yes! æsthetic +fashion is right in its love for marigolds--burnt in a perfect blaze +of golden colour and aromatic scent. The air was so mild that we could +imagine summer was still with us: and the great wide circle of sea +gleamed in the sunshine as if there never had been, never could be, +such a thing as cloud or storm. + +Having ascertained that there was no service nearer than Grade, some +miles off, until the afternoon, we "went to church" on the cliffs, in +Pistol Meadow, beside the green mounds where the two hundred drowned +sailors sleep in peace. + +[Illustration: STEAM SEINE BOATS GOING OUT.] + +And such a peaceful place! Absolutely solitary: not a living creature, +not even a sheep came near me the whole morning:--and in the silence +I could hear almost every word said by my young folks, searching for +sea-treasures among the rocks and little pools far below. Westwards +towards Kynance, and eastwards towards Landewednack--the church we were +to go to in the afternoon--the cliff path was smooth and green, the +short grass full of those curious dainty flowers, some of which were +new to our eager eyes. At other times the road was so precipitous that +we did not wonder at those carefully white-washed stones every few +yards, which are the sole guide to the coastguard men of dark nights. +Even in daylight, if the wind were high, or the footing slippery with +rain, the cliff-walk from the Lizard to Kynance would be no joke to +uninitiated feet. + +Now, all was so still that the wind never once fluttered the letter I +was writing, and so warm that we were glad to escape the white glare of +the wall of the Lizard Lights and sit in a cool hollow, watching sky +and ocean, with now and then a sea-bird floating lazily between, a dark +speck on the perpetual blue. + +"If it will only keep like this all week!" And, as we sat, we planned +out each day, so as to miss nothing, and lose nothing--either of time +or strength: doing enough, but never too much--as is often the fatal +mistake of tourists. And then, following the grand law of travelling, +to have one's "meals reg'lar"--we went indoors and dined. Afterwards in +honour of the day + + "that comes between + The Saturday and Monday," + +we dressed ourselves in all our best--very humble best it was!--to join +the good people going to church at Landewednack. + +This, which in ancient Cornish means "the white-roofed church of St. +Wednack"--hagiologists must decide who that individual was!--is the +name of the parish to which the comparatively modern Lizard Town +belongs. The church is in a very picturesque corner, close to the sea, +though both it and the rectory are protected by a sudden dip in the +ground, so that you see neither till you are close upon them. A fine +Norman doorway, a curious hagioscope, and other points, interesting to +archaeologists--also the neatest and prettiest of churchyards--make +note-worthy this, the most southerly church in England. A fine old +building, not spoiled though "restored." The modern open pews, and a +modern memorial pulpit of serpentine, jarred less than might have been +expected with the carefully-preserved remains of the past. + +In Landewednack church is said to have been preached the last sermon in +Cornish. This was in 1678. Since, the ancient tongue has completely +died out, and the people of King Arthur's country have become wholly +English. + +Still, they are not the English of the midland and northern districts, +but of a very different type and race. I have heard it said that a +seaboard population, accustomed to wrestle with the dangers of the +coast, to move about from place to place, see foreign countries, and +carry on its business in the deep waters, is always more capable, more +intelligent, as a whole, than an inland people, whether agricultural +or manufacturing. It may be so: but certainly the aborigines of +Lizard Town, who could easily be distinguished from the visitors--of +whom there was yet a tolerable sprinkling--made a very interesting +congregation; orderly, respectable, reverent; simple in dress and +manner, yet many of them, both the men and women, exceedingly +picturesque. That is, the old men and the old women: the younger ones +aped modern fashion even here, in this out-of-the-way corner, and +consequently did not look half so well as their seniors. + +I must name one more member of the congregation--a large black dog, +who walked in and settled himself in the pew behind, where he behaved +during half the service in an exemplary manner, worthy of the Highland +shepherds' dogs, who always come to church with their masters, and +conduct themselves with equal decorum. + +There is always a certain pathos in going in to worship in a strange +church, with a strange congregation, of whom you are as ignorant as +they of you. In the intervals of kneeling with them as "miserable +sinners," one finds oneself speculating upon them, their possible +faults and virtues, joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, watching the +unknown faces, and trying to read thereon the records of a common +humanity. A silent homily, better perhaps than most sermons. + +Not that there was aught to complain of in the sermon, and the singing +was especially good. Many a London choir might have taken a lesson from +this village church at the far end of Cornwall. When service was over, +we lingered in the pretty and carefully tended churchyard, where the +evening light fell softly upon many curious gravestones, of seafaring +men, and a few of wrecked sailors--only a few, since it is but within +a generation that bodies washed ashore from the deep were allowed to +be buried in consecrated ground; most of them, like the two hundred in +Pistol Meadow, being interred as near as convenient to where they were +found, without any burial rites. Still, in all the churchyards along +this coast are graves with a story. A little corner railed off has an +old and sad one. There lie buried the victims of the plague, which in +1645 devastated the village. No one since has ever ventured to disturb +their resting-place. + +Very green and peaceful the churchyard looked: the beautiful day was +dying, beautiful to the last. We stood and watched the congregation +melt slowly away, disappearing down the lane, and then, attracted by +the sound of music, we re-entered the church. There we sat and listened +for another half-hour to the practising of an anthem ready for the +harvest festival, which had been announced for the following Tuesday; +exceedingly well done too, the rector's voice leading it all, with an +energy and enthusiasm that at once accounted for the capital condition +of the choir. + +"If this weather will only last!" was our earnest sigh as we walked +home; and anxious not to lose a minute of it, we gave ourselves the +briefest rest, and turned out again, I to watch the sunset from the +cliffs, while the others descended once more to their beloved sea-pools. + +"Such anemones, such sea-weed! and scrambling is so delicious! Besides, +sunsets are all alike," added the youthful, practical, and slightly +unpoetical mind. + +No, they are not alike. Every one has a mysterious charm of its +own--just like that in every new human face. I have seen hundreds of +sunsets in my time, and those I shall see are narrowing down now, but +I think to the end of my life I shall always feel a day incomplete of +which I did not see the sunset. + +This one was splendid. The usual place where the sun dropped into the +sea, just beyond the point of the Land's End, was all a golden mist. +I hastened west, climbing one intervening cliff after the other, +anxious not to miss the clear sight of him as he set his glowing +feet, or rather his great round disc, on the sea. At last I found a +"comfortable" stone, sheltered from the wind, which blew tolerably +fresh, and utterly solitary (as I thought), the intense silence +being such that one could almost hear the cropping of three placid +sheep--evidently well accustomed to sunsets, and thinking them of +little consequence. + +There I sat until the last red spark had gone out, quenched in the +Atlantic waters, and from behind the vanished sun sprung a gleam of +absolutely green light, "like a firework out of a rocket," the young +people said; such as I had never seen before, though we saw it once +afterwards. Nature's fireworks they were; and I could see even the two +little black figures moving along the rocks below stand still to watch +them. I watched too, with that sort of lonely delight--the one shadow +upon it being that it is so lonely--with which all one's life one is +accustomed to watch beautiful and vanishing things. Then seeing how +fast the colours were fading and the sky darkening, I rose; but just +took a step or two farther to look over the edge of my stone into the +next dip of the cliff, and there I saw-- + +[Illustration: HAULING IN THE BOATS--EVENING.] + +Actually, two human beings! Lovers, of course. Nothing else would have +sat so long and so silently, for I had been within three yards of them +all the time, and had never discovered them, nor they me. Poor young +things! they did not discover me even yet. They sat, quite absorbed in +one another, hand in hand, looking quietly seaward, their faces bathed +in the rosy sunset--which to them was a sunrise, the sort of sun which +never rises twice in a life-time. + +I left them to it. Evidently they did not see me, in fact I just +peered over the rock's edge and drew back again; any slight sound they +probably attributed to the harmless sheep. Well, it was but an equally +harmless old woman, who did not laugh at them, as some might have done, +but smiled and wished them well, as she left them to their sunset, and +turned to face the darkening east, where the sun would rise to-morrow. + +The moon was rising there now, and it was a picture to behold. Indeed, +all these Cornish days seemed so full of moonrises and sunsets--and +sunrises too--that it was really inconvenient. Going to bed seemed +almost a sin--as on this night, when, opening our parlour door, which +looked right on to the garden, we saw the whole world lying in a flood +of moonlight peace, the marigolds and carnations leaning cheek to +cheek, as motionless as the two young lovers on the cliff. Who, alas! +must long ago have had their dream broken, for five minutes afterwards +I had met a most respectable fat couple from Lizard Town taking their +Sunday evening stroll, in all their Sunday best, along those very +cliffs. Most painful interruption! But perhaps, the good folks had once +been lovers too. + +What a night it was! fit night to such a perfect day. How the stars +shone, without a mist or a cloud; how the Lizard Lights gleamed, even +in spite of the moonlight, and how clear showed the black outline of +Kynance Cove, from which came through the silence a dull murmur of +waves! It was, as we declared, a sin and a shame to go to bed at all +though we had been out the whole day, and hoped to be out the whole of +to-morrow. Still, human nature could not keep awake for ever. We passed +from the poetical to the practical, and decided to lay us down and +sleep. + +But, in the middle of the night I woke, rose, and looked out of the +window. + +What a change! Sea and sky were one blackness, literally as "black as +ink," and melting into one another so that both were undistinguishable. +As for the moon and stars--heaven knows where they had gone to, for +they seemed utterly blotted out. The only light visible was the ghostly +gleam of those two great eyes, the Lizard Lights, stretching far out +into the intense darkness. I never saw such darkness--unbroken even by +the white crest of a wave. And the stillness was like the stillness of +death, with a heavy weight in the air which made me involuntarily go +to sleep again, though with an awed impression of "something going to +happen." + +And sure enough in another hour something did happen. I started awake, +feeling as if a volley of artillery had been poured in at my window. +It was the wildest deluge of rain, beating against the panes, and with +it came a wind that howled and shrieked round the house as if all the +demons in Cornwall, Tregeagle himself included, were let loose at once. + +Now we understood what a Lizard storm could be. I have seen +Mediterranean storms, sweeping across the Campagna like armed +battalions of avenging angels, pouring out their vials of wrath--rain, +hail, thunder, and lightning--unceasingly for two whole days. I have +been in Highland storms, so furious that one had to sit down in the +middle of the road with one's plaid over one's head, till the worst of +their rage was spent. But I never saw or heard anything more awful than +this Lizard storm, to which I lay and listened till the day began to +dawn. + +Then the wind lulled a little, but the rain still fell in torrents, +and the sky and sea were as black as ever. The weather had evidently +broken for good--that is, for evil. Alas! the harvest, and the harvest +festival! And alas--of minor importance, but still some, to us at +least--alas for our holiday in Cornwall! Only four days, and--this! + +It was with a heavy heart that, feeling there was not the slightest use +in getting up, I turned round and took another sleep. + + + + +DAY THE FIFTH + + +"Hope for the best, and be prepared for the worst," had been the motto +of our journey. So when we rose to one of the wettest mornings that +ever came out of the sky, there was a certain satisfaction in being +prepared for it. + +"We must have a fire, that is certain," was our first decision. This +entailed the abolition of our beautiful decorations--our sea-holly +and ferns; also some anxious looks from our handmaiden. Apparently no +fire, had been lit in this rather despised room for many months--years +perhaps--and the chimney rather resented being used. A few agonised +down-puffs greatly interfered with the comfort of the breakfast table, +and an insane attempt to open the windows made matters worse. + +Which was most preferable--to be stifled or deluged? We were just +considering the question, when the chimney took a new and kinder +thought, or the wind took a turn--it seemed to blow alternately from +every quarter, and then from all quarters at once--the smoke went up +straight, the room grew warm and bright, with the cosy peace of the +first fire of the season. Existence became once more endurable, nay, +pleasant. + +"We shall survive, spite of the rain!" And we began to laugh over our +lost day which we had meant to begin by bathing in Housel Cove; truly, +just to stand outside the door would give an admirable douche bath in +three minutes. "But how nice it is to be inside, with a roof over our +heads, and no necessity for travelling. Fancy the unfortunate tourists +who have fixed on to-day for visiting the Lizard!" (Charles had told us +that Monday was a favourite day for excursions.) "Fancy anybody being +obliged to go out such weather as this!" + +And in our deep pity for our fellow-creatures we forgot to pity +ourselves. + +Nor was there much pity needed; we had provided against emergencies, +with a good store of needlework and knitting, anything that would +pack in small compass, also a stock of unquestionably "light" +literature--paper-covered, double-columned, sixpenny volumes, inclosing +an amount of enjoyment which those only can understand who are true +lovers of Walter Scott. We had enough of him to last for a week of wet +days. And we had a one-volume Tennyson, all complete, and a "Morte +d'Arthur"--Sir Thomas Malory's. On this literary provender we felt that +as yet we should not starve. + +Also, some little fingers having a trifling turn for art, brought out +triumphantly a colour-box, pencils, and pictures. And the wall-paper +being one of the very ugliest that ever eye beheld, we sought and +obtained permission to adorn it with these, our _chefs-d'[oe]uvre_, +pasted at regular intervals. Where we hope they still remain, for the +edification of succeeding lodgers. + +We read the "Idylls of the King" all through, finishing with "The +Passing of Arthur," where the "bold Sir Bedivere" threw Excalibur into +the mere--which is supposed to be Dozmare Pool. Here King Arthur's +faithful lover was so melted--for the hundredth time--by the pathos +of the story, and by many old associations, that the younger and +more practical minds grew scornful, and declared that probably King +Arthur had never existed at all--or if he had, was nothing but a rough +barbarian, unlike even the hero of Sir Thomas Malory, and far more +unlike the noble modern gentleman of Tennyson's verse. Maybe: and yet, +seeing that + + "'Tis better to have loved and lost + Than never to have loved at all," + +may it not be better to have believed in an impossible ideal man, than +to accept contentedly a low ideal, and worship blindly the worldly, the +mean, or the base? + +This topic furnished matter for so much hot argument, that, besides +doing a quantity of needlework, we succeeded in making our one wet day +by no means the least amusing of our seventeen days in Cornwall. + +[Illustration: HAULING IN THE LINES.] + +Hour after hour we watched the rain--an even down-pour. In the midst +of it we heard a rumour that Charles had been seen about the town, and +soon after he appeared at the door, hat in hand, soaked but smiling, +to inquire for and sympathise with his ladies. Yes, he _had_ brought a +party to the Lizard that day!--unfortunate souls (or bodies), for there +could not have been a dry thread left on them! We gathered closer round +our cosy fire; ate our simple dinner with keen enjoyment, and agreed +that after all we had much to be thankful for. + +In the afternoon the storm abated a little, and we thought we would +seize the chance of doing some shopping, if there was a shop in Lizard +Town. So we walked--I ought rather to say waded, for the road was +literally swimming--meeting not one living creature, except a family of +young ducks, who, I need scarcely say, were enjoying supreme felicity. + +"Yes, ladies, this is the sort of weather we have pretty well all +winter. Very little frost or snow, but rain and storm, and plenty of +it. Also fogs; I've heard there's nothing anywhere like the fogs at the +Lizard." + +So said the woman at the post-office, which, except the serpentine +shops, seemed to be the one emporium of commerce in the place. There we +could get all we wanted, and a good deal that we were very thankful we +did not want, of eatables, drinkables, and wearables. Also ornaments, +china vases, &c., of a kind that would have driven frantic any person +of æsthetic tastes. Among them an active young Cornishman of about a +year old was meandering aimlessly, or with aims equally destructive +to himself and the community. He all but succeeded in bringing down a +row of plates upon his devoted head, and then tied himself up, one fat +finger after another, in a ball of twine, upon which he began to howl +violently. + +"He's a regular little trial," said the young mother proudly. "He's +only sixteen months old, and yet he's up to all sorts of mischief. I +don't know what in the world I shall do with he, presently. Naughty +boy!" with a delighted scowl. + +"Not naughty, only active," suggested another maternal spirit, and +pleaded that the young jackanapes should be found something to do that +was not mischief, but yet would occupy his energies, and fill his mind. +At which, the bright bold face looked up as if he had understood it +all--an absolutely fearless face, brimming with fun, and shrewdness +too. Who knows? The "regular little trial" may grow into a valuable +member of society--fisherman, sailor, coastguardman--daring and doing +heroic deeds; perhaps saving many a life on nights such as last night, +which had taught us what Cornish coast-life was all winter through. + +The storm was now gradually abating; the wind had lulled entirely, the +rain had ceased, and by sunset a broad yellow streak all along the west +implied that it might possibly be a fine day to-morrow. + +But the lane was almost a river still, and the slippery altitudes of +the "hedges" were anything but desirable. As the only possible place +for a walk I ventured into a field where two or three cows cropped +their supper of damp grass round one of those green hillocks seen in +every Cornish pasture field--a manure heap planted with cabbages, which +grow there with a luxuriance that turns ugliness into positive beauty. +Very dreary everything was--the soaking grass, the leaden sky, the +angry-looking sea, over which a rainy moon was just beginning to throw +a faint glimmer; while shorewards one could just trace the outline of +Lizard Point and the wheat-field behind it. Yesterday those fields had +looked so sunshiny and fair, but to-night they were all dull and grey, +with rows of black dots indicating the soppy, sodden harvest sheaves. + +Which reminded me that to-morrow was the harvest festival at +Landewednack, when all the world and his wife was invited by shilling +tickets to have tea in the rectory garden, and afterwards to assist at +the evening thanksgiving service in the church. + +"Thanksgiving! What for?" some poor farmer might well exclaim, +especially on such a day as this. Some harvest festivals must +occasionally seem a bitter mockery. Indeed, I doubt if the next +generation will not be wise in taking our "Prayers for Rain," +"Prayers for Fair Weather," clean out of the liturgy. Such conceited +intermeddling with the government of the world sounds to some +ridiculous, to others actually profane. "Snow and hail, mists and +vapours, wind and storm, fulfilling His Word." And it must be +fulfilled, no matter at what cost to individuals or to nations. The +laws of the universe must be carried out, even though the mystery +of sorrow, like the still greater mystery of evil, remains for ever +unexplained. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" + +And how right is His right! How marvellously beautiful He can make this +world! until we can hardly imagine anything more beautiful in the world +everlasting. Ay, even after such a day as to-day, when the world seems +hardly worth living in, yet we live on, live to wake up unto such a +to-morrow-- + +But I must wait to speak of it in another page. + + + + +DAY THE SIXTH + + +And a day absolutely divine! Not a cloud upon the sky, not a ripple +upon the water, or it appeared so in the distance. Nearer, no doubt, +there would have been that heavy ground-swell which is so long in +subsiding, in fact is scarcely ever absent on this coast. The land, +like the sea, was all one smile; the pasture fields shone in brilliant +green, the cornfields gleaming yellow--at once a beauty and a +thanksgiving. + +It was the very perfection of an autumn morning. We would not lose +an hour of it, but directly after breakfast started leisurely to +find Housel Cove and try our first experiment of bathing in the wide +Atlantic. + +The Atlantic it certainly was. Not a rood of land lay between us and +America. Yet the illimitable ocean "where the great ships go down," +rolled in to our feet in baby ripples, disporting itself harmlessly, +and tempting my two little mermaids to swim out to the utmost limit +that prudence allowed. And how delightful it was to run back barefoot +across the soft sand to the beautiful dressing-room of serpentine +rock, where one could sit and watch the glittering sea, untroubled by +any company save the gulls and cormorants. What a contrast to other +bathing places--genteel Eastbourne and Brighton, or vulgar Margate and +Ramsgate, where, nevertheless, the good folks look equally happy. But +our happiness! No words could describe it. Shall we stamp ourselves +as persons of little mind, easily satisfied, if I confess that we +spent the whole morning in Housel Cove without band or promenade, +without even a Christy Minstrel or a Punch and Judy, our sole amusement +being the vain attempt to catch a tiny fish, the Robinson Crusoe of +a small pool in the rock above high-water mark, where by some ill +chance he found himself. But he looked extremely contented with his +sea hermitage, and evaded so cleverly all our efforts to get hold of +him, that after a while we left him to his solitude--where possibly he +resides still. + +[Illustration: THE LIZARD LIGHTS BY DAY.] + +How delicious it is for hard-worked people to do nothing, absolutely +nothing! Of course only for a little while--a few days, a few hours. +The love of work and the necessity for it soon revive. But just for +those few harmless hours to let the world and its duties and cares +alike slip by, to be absolutely idle, to fold one's hands and look +at the sea and the sky, thinking of nothing at all, except perhaps +to count and watch for every ninth wave--said to be the biggest +always--and wonder how big it will be, and whether it will reach that +stone with the little colony of limpets and two red anemones beside +them, or stop short at the rock where we sit placidly dangling our +feet, waiting, Canute-like, for the supreme moment when the will of +humanity sinks conquered by the immutable powers of nature. Then, +greatest crisis of all, the sea will attack that magnificent castle and +moat, which we grown-up babies have constructed with such pride. Well, +have we not all built our sand-castles and seen them swept away? happy +if by no unkinder force than the remorseless wave of Time, which will +soon flow over us all. + +But how foolish is moralising--making my narrative halt like that horse +whom we amused ourselves with half the afternoon. He was tied by the +leg, poor beast, the fore leg fastened to the hind one, as seemed to be +the ordinary Cornish fashion with all animals--horses, cows, and sheep. +It certainly saves a deal of trouble, preventing them from climbing the +"hedges" which form the sole boundary of property, but it makes the +creatures go limping about in rather a melancholy fashion. However, +as it is their normal condition, probably they communicate it to one +another, and each generation accepts its lot. + +This horse did. He was a handsome animal, who came and peered at +the sketch which one of us was doing, after the solemn fashion of +quadrupedal connoisseurship, and kept us company all the afternoon. We +sat in a row on the top of the "hedge," enjoying the golden afternoon, +and scarcely believing it possible that yesterday had been yesterday. +Of the wild storm and deluge of rain there was not a single trace; +everything looked as lovely as if it had been, and was going to be, +summer all the year. + +We were so contented, and were making such progress in our sketch and +distant view of Kynance over the now dry and smiling cornfield, that we +had nigh forgotten the duties of civilisation, until some one brought +the news that all the household was apparently dressing itself in its +very best, to attend the rectory tea. We determined to do the same, +though small were our possibilities of toilette. + +"But what does it matter?" argued we. "Nobody knows us, and we know +nobody." + +A position rather rare to those who "dwell among their own people," +who take a kindly interest in everybody, and believe with a pardonable +credulity that everybody takes a kindly interest in them. + +But human nature is the same all the world over. And here we saw it in +its pleasantest phase; rich and poor meeting together, not for charity, +but courtesy--a courtesy that was given with a kindliness and accepted +with a quiet independence which seemed characteristic of these Cornish +folk. + +Among the little crowd, gentle and simple, we, of course, did not know +a single soul. Nevertheless, delivering up our tickets to the gardener +at the gate, we entered, and wandered at ease through the pretty +garden, gorgeous with asters, marigolds, carnations, and all sorts of +rich-coloured and rich-scented autumn flowers; where the hydrangeas +grew in enormous bushes, and the fuchsias had stems as thick and solid +as trees. + +In front of the open hall door was a gravel sweep where were ranged +two long tea-tables filled with the humbler but respectable class of +parishioners, chiefly elderly people, and some very old. The Lizard is +a place noted for longevity, as is proved by the register books, where +several deaths at over a hundred may be found recorded, and one--he was +the rector of Landewednack in 1683--is said to have died at the age of +120 years. + +The present rector is no such Methuselah. He moved actively to and fro +among his people, and so did his wife, whom we should have recognised +by her omnipresent kindliness, even if she had not come and welcomed +us strangers--easily singled out as strangers, where all the rest were +friends. + +Besides the poor and the aged, there was a goodly number of guests +who were neither the one nor the other, playing energetically at +lawn-tennis behind the house, on a "lawn" composed of sea-sand. All +seemed determined to amuse themselves and everybody else, and all did +their very best--including the band. + +Alas, that band! I would fain pass it over in silence (would it +had returned the compliment!); but truth is truth, and may benefit +rather than harm. The calm composure with which those half-dozen +wind-instruments sat in a row, playing determinedly flat, bass coming +in with a tremendous boom here and there, entirely at his own volition, +without regard to time or tune, was the most awful thing I ever heard +in music! Agony, pure and simple, was the only sensation it produced. +When they struck up, we just ran away till the tune was ended--what +tune, familiar or unfamiliar, it was impossible to say. Between us +three, all blessed, or cursed, with musical ears, there existed such +difference of opinion on this head, that decision became vain. And +when at last, as the hour of service approached, little groups began +strolling towards the church, the musicians began a final "God save the +Queen," barely recognisable, a feeling of thankfulness was the only +sensation left. + +[Illustration: THE FISHERMAN'S DAUGHTER--A CORNISH STUDY.] + +Now, let me not be hard upon these village Orpheuses. They did their +best, and for a working man to study music in any form is a good and +desirable thing. But whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing +well. The great bane of provincial life is that people have so few +opportunities of finding out when they do _not_ do things well, and so +little ambition to learn to do them better. If these few severe remarks +should spur on that anonymous band to try and emulate the Philharmonic +or the Crystal Palace orchestra, it will be all the better for the +little community at the Lizard. + +The music in the church was beautiful. A crowded congregation--not a +seat vacant--listened to the excellent chanting, hymns, and a harvest +anthem, most accurately and correctly sung. The organist too--it was +a pleasure to watch that young man's face and see with what interest +and enthusiasm he entered into it all. Besides the rector, there were +several other clergymen, one of whom, an old man, read the prayers +with an intonation and expression which I have rarely heard equalled, +and another preached what would have been called anywhere a thoroughly +good sermon. All the statelier guests at the Rectory tea--probably +county families (one stout lady had the dignity of a duchess at +least)--"assisted" at this evening service, and behind them was a +throng of humbler folk, among whom we recognised our sole friend here, +John Curgenven. We had passed him at the church door, and he had lifted +his hat with the air of a _preux chevalier_ of the olden time; "more +like King Arthur than ever"--we observed to one another. + +He, and we, and the aristocratic groups, with a few more of the +congregation, lingered for several minutes after service was over, +admiring the beautiful flowers and fruit. I think I never saw any +decorations so rich or so tasteful. And then, as the organ played us +out with an exceedingly brilliant voluntary, the vision of light and +colour melted away, and we came out upon the quiet churchyard, lying in +the cold, still moonlight. + +But what a moonlight! Clear as day, the round silver orb sailing +through a cloudless sky of that deep dark which we know is blue, only +moonlight shows no colours. Oh, Lady Moon, Lady Moon, what a dangerous +night for some of those groups to go walking home in! We saw them in +twos and threes, various young people whom we had got to know by sight, +and criticise, and take an interest in, wandering slowly on through +Lizard Town, and then diverging into quieter paths. + +As we gladly did too. For there, in an open space near the two hotels +which co-exist close together--I hope amicably, and divide the tourist +custom of the place--in front of a row of open windows which showed the +remains of a _table d'hôte_, and playing lively tunes to a group of +delighted listeners, including some children, who had struck up a merry +dance--stood that terrible wind band! + +It was too much! All our sympathy with our fellow-creatures, our +pleasure in watching them enjoy themselves, our interest in studying +human nature in the abstract, nay, even the picturesqueness of the +charming moonlight scene, could not tempt us to stay. We paused a +minute, then put our fingers in our ears and fled. Gradually those +fearful sounds melted away into distance, and left us to the silence of +moonshine, and the sight, now grown familiar, but never less beautiful, +of the far-gleaming Lizard Lights. + + + + +DAY THE SEVENTH + + +John Curgenven had said last night, with his air of tender patronising, +half regal, half paternal, which we declared always reminded us of King +Arthur--"Ladies, whenever you settle to go to Kynance, I'll take you." + +And sure enough there he stood, at eight in the morning, quite a +picture, his cap in one hand, a couple of fishes dangling from the +other--he had brought them as a present, and absolutely refused to be +paid--smiling upon us at our breakfast, as benignly as did the sun. He +came to say that he was at our service till 10 A.M.; when he +had an engagement. + +Our countenances fell. We did not like venturing in strange and +dangerous ground, or rather sea, without our protector. But this was +our last chance, and such a lovely day. + +"You won't come to any harm, ladies," said the consoling John. "I'll +take you by a short cut across the down, much better than the cliff. +You can't possibly miss your way: it'll lead you straight to Kynance, +and then you go down a steep path to the Cove. You'll have plenty of +time before the tide comes in to see everything." + +"And to bathe?" + +"Oh yes, miss, there's the Drawing-room, the Dining-room, and the +Kitchen--all capital caves close together; I wouldn't advise you to +swim out far, though. And keep a sharp look out for the tide--it runs +in pretty fast." + +"And the scrambling?" + +"Oh, you can easy get on Asparagus Island, miss; it's quite safe. Only +don't try the Devil's Throat--or Hell's Mouth, as some folk call it." + +Neither name was inviting; but studying our guide-books, we thought we +could manage even without our friend. So, long ere the dew was dried on +the sunshiny down, we all started off together, Curgenven slackening +his quick active steps--very light and most enviably active for a man +of his years--to accommodate us, and conversing courteously with us all +the way. + +[Illustration: KYNANCE COVE, CORNWALL.] + +"Ower the muir amang the heather" have I tramped many a mile in +bonnie Scotland, but this Cornish moor and Cornish heather were quite +different. As different as the Cornishman with his bright, frank face, +and his mixture of British honesty and Gallic courtesy, from the Scotch +peasant--equally worthy, but sometimes just a trifle "dour." + +John had plenty to say for himself, and said it well, with a quiet +independence that there was no mistaking; never forgetting meanwhile to +stop and offer a helping hand over every bit of rough road, puddle, or +bog. He gave us a vivid picture of winter life at the Lizard: when the +little community has to hybernate, like the squirrels and field-mice, +upon its summer savings. + +"Sometimes we don't earn a halfpenny for weeks and months, and then if +we've got nothing to fall back upon it's a bad job, you see, ma'am." + +I asked him if much money went for drink; they seemed to me a +remarkably sober set at the Lizard. + +"Yes, I think we are; we're obliged to be; we can't spend money at the +public-house, for we've got none to spend. I'm no teetotaller myself," +added John boldly. "I don't dislike a glass of beer now and then, if I +can afford it, and when I can't afford it I can do without it, and if I +do take it I always know when to stop." + +Ay, that is the crucial test--the knowing when to stop. It is this +which makes all the difference between a good man and a villain, a wise +man and a fool. Self-control--a quality which, guided by conscience and +common sense, is the best possession of any human being. And looking at +the honest fisherman, one felt pretty sure he had his share of it. + +"Now I must leave you, ladies," said he, a great deal sooner than we +wished, for we much liked talking to him. "My time's nearly up, and I +mustn't keep my gentleman waiting; he goes out in my boat every day, +and has been a good friend to me. The road's straight before you, +ladies; and there's another party just ahead of you. Follow the track, +and you'll soon be at Kynance. It's a lovely day for the Cove, and I +hope you'll enjoy yourselves." + +John bared his grey head, with a salutation worthy of some old knight +of the Round Table, and then strode back, in double-quick time, as +active and upright as any young fellow of twenty-five, across the level +down. + +Beautiful Kynance! When, afterwards, I stood one dull winter day +in a London Art Gallery, opposite the _Cornish Lions_, how well I +recalled this day! How truly Brett's picture gives the long roll of +the wave upon the silver sands, the richly-tinted rocks and caves, the +brightness and freshness of everything. And those merry girls beside +me, who had the faculty of enjoying all they had, and all they did, +without regretting what they had not or what they might not do--with +heroic resignation they promised not to attempt to swim in the tempting +smooth water beyond the long rollers. Though knocked down again and +again, they always emerged from the waves with shouts of laughter. Mere +dots they looked to my anxious eyes--a couple of corks tossed hither +and thither on the foaming billows--and very thankful I was to get them +safe back into the "drawing-room," the loveliest of lovely caves. + +There was no time to lose; by noon our parlour floor--what a fairy +floor it was! of the softest, most delicious sand--would be all covered +with waves. And before then there was a deal to be seen and done, the +Bellows, the Gull Rock, Asparagus Island--even if we left out the +dangerous points with the ugly names that Curgenven had warned us +against. + +What is there in humanity, certainly in youthful humanity, that if +it can attain its end in two ways, one quiet and decorous, the other +difficult and dangerous, is certain to choose the latter? + +"We must manage to get you to the Bellows, it is such a curious sight," +said my girls as they returned from it. "Don't be frightened--come +along!" + +By dint of pulling, pushing, and the help of stick and arm, I came: +stood watching the spout of water which, in certain conditions of the +tide, forces itself through a tiny fissure in the rock with a great +roar, and joined in the childish delight of waiting, minute by minute, +for the biggest spout, the loudest roar. + +But Asparagus Island (where was no asparagus at all) I totally +declined. Not being a goat or a chamois, I contented myself with +sitting where I could gain the best view of the almost invisible +path by which my adventurous young "kids" disappeared. Happily they +had both steady heads and cool nerves; they were neither rash nor +unconscientious. I knew they would come back as soon as they could. So +I waited patiently, contemplating a fellow-victim who seemed worse off +than myself; a benign-looking clergyman, who kept walking up and down +the soppy sands, and shouting at intervals to two young people, a man +and a woman, who appeared to be crawling like flies along the face of +the rock towards another rock, with a yawning cave and a wide fissure +between. + +"Don't attempt it!" the clergyman cried at the top of his voice. +"That's the Devil's Throat. She'll never manage it. Come down. Do make +her come down." + +"Your young people seem rather venturesome," said I sympathetically. + +[Illustration: THE STEEPLE ROCK, KYNANCE COVE.] + +"Not _my_ young people," was the dignified answer. "My girls are up +there, on Asparagus Rock, which is easy enough climbing. They promised +not to go farther, and they never disobey their mother and me. But +those two! I declare he is taking her to the most dangerous part, that +rock where you have to jump--a good jump it is, and if you miss your +footing you are done for, you go right into the boiling waves below. +Well, it's no business of mine; she is his own property; he is engaged +to her, but"-- + +I fear I made some very severe remarks on the folly of a young man who +could thus risk life and limbs--not only his own, but those of his wife +to be; and on the weakness of a girl who could allow herself to be +tempted, even by a lover, into such selfish foolhardiness. + +"They must manage their own affairs," said the old gentleman +sententiously, perhaps not being so much given to preaching (out of the +pulpit) as I was. "My daughters are wiser. Here come two of them." + +And very sensible girls they looked, clad in a practical, convenient +fashion, just fitted for scrambling. By them I sent a message to my own +girls, explaining the best descent from Asparagus Island, and repeating +the warning against attempting Hell's Mouth. + +"Yes, you are quite right," said my elderly friend, as we sat down +together on the least uncomfortable stone we could find, and watched +the juniors disappear over the rocks. "I like to see girls active and +brave; I never hinder them in any reasonable enjoyment, even though +there may be risk in it--one must run some risk--and a woman may +have to save life as well as a man. But foolhardy bravado I not only +dislike--I _despise_ it." + +In which sentiments I so entirely agreed that we fraternised there +and then; began talking on all sorts of subjects--some of them the +very serious and earnest subjects that one occasionally drops into by +mere chance, with mere strangers. I recall that half hour on Kynance +Sands as one of the pleasant memories of our tour, though to this day +I have not the remotest idea who my companion was. Except that as soon +as he spoke I recognised the reader whose voice had so struck me in +last night's thanksgiving service; reminding me of Frederick Denison +Maurice, whom this generation is almost beginning to forget, but whom +we elders never can forget. + +The tide was creeping on now--nay, striding, wave after wave, through +"parlour" and "drawing-room," making ingress and egress alike +impossible. In fact, a newly arrived party of tourists, who had stood +unwisely long contemplating the Bellows, were seen to gaze in despair +from their rock which had suddenly become an island. No chance for them +except to wade--and in a few minutes more they would probably have +to swim ashore. What became of them we did not stay to see, for an +anxious, prudent little voice, always thoughtful for "mother," insisted +on our precipitate flight before the advancing tide. Kynance, lovely as +it is, has its inconveniences. + +Departing, we met a whole string of tourist-looking people, whom we +benevolently warned that they were too late, at which they did not +seem in the least disappointed. Probably they were one of the numerous +pic-nic parties who come here from Falmouth or Helstone, to spend a +jovial day of eating and drinking, and enjoy the delights of the flesh +rather than the spirit. + +At any rate the romance and solitude of the place were gone. The quaint +old woman at the serpentine shop--a mild little wooden erection under +the cliff--was being chaffed and bargained with by three youths with +cigars, which defiled the whole air around, and made us take refuge up +the hill. But even there a white umbrella had sprung up like a gigantic +mushroom, and under it sat an energetic lady artist, who, entering at +once into conversation, with a cheerful avidity that implied her not +having talked for a week, informed us of all she was painting, and all +she had meant to paint, where she lodged, and how much she paid for her +lodging--evidently expecting the same confidences from us in return. + +But we were getting hungry, and between us and dinner was a long +two-miles walk over the steep downs, that were glowing, nay, burning, +under the September sun. So we turned homeward, glad of more than one +rest by the way, and a long pause beside a pretty little stream; where +we were able to offer the immemorial cup of cold water to several +thirsty souls besides ourselves. Some of us by this time were getting +to feel not so young as we had fancied ourselves in the early morning, +and to wish regretfully for Charles and his carriage. + +However, we got home at last--to find that sad accompaniment of many a +holiday--tidings of sickness and death. Nothing very near us--nothing +that need hurry us home--but enough to sadden us, and make our evening +walk, which we bravely carried out, a far less bright one than that of +the forenoon. + +The girls had found a way, chiefly on the tops of "hedges," to the +grand rock called Lizard Point. Thither we went, and watched the +sunset--a very fine one; then came back through the village, and made +various purchases of serpentine from John Curgenven's wife, who was +a great deal younger than himself, but not near so handsome or so +original. + +But a cloud had come over us; it did not, and must not stay--still, +there it was for the time. When the last thing at night I went out into +the glorious moonlight--bright as day--and thought of the soul who had +just passed out of a long and troubled life into the clearness of life +eternal, it seemed as if all was right still. Small cares and worries +dwindled down or melted away--as the petty uglinesses around melted +in the radiance of this glorious harvest moon, which seemed to wrap +one round in a silent peace, like the "garment of praise," which David +speaks about--in exchange for "the spirit of heaviness." + + + + +DAY THE EIGHTH + + +And seven days were all we could allow ourselves at the Lizard, if we +meant to see the rest of Cornwall. We began to reckon with sore hearts +that five days were already gone, and it seemed as if we had not seen +half we ought to see, even of our near surroundings. + +"We will take no excursion to-day. We will just have our bath at Housel +Cove and then we will wander about the shore, and examine the Lizard +Lights. Only fancy, our going away to-morrow without having seen the +inside of the Lizard Lights! Oh, I wish we were not leaving so soon. We +shall never like any place as we like the Lizard." + +It was indeed very delightful. Directly after breakfast--and we are +people who never vary from our eight o'clock breakfast, so that we +always see the world in its early morning brightness and freshness--we +went + + "Brushing with hasty steps the dew away," + +along the fields, which led down to Housel or Househole Cove. Before +us, clear in the sunshine, rose the fine headland of Penolver, and +the green slopes of the amphitheatre of Belidden, supposed to be the +remains of a Druidical temple. That, and the chair of Belidden, a +recess in the rock, whence there is a splendid view, with various +archæological curiosities, true or traditionary, we ought to have +examined, I know. But--we didn't do it. Some of us were content to +rejoice in the general atmosphere of beauty and peace without minute +investigation, and some of us were so eminently practical that "a good +bathe" appeared more important than all the poetry and archæology in +the world. + +So we wandered slowly on, rejoicing at having the place all to +ourselves, when we came suddenly upon a tall black figure intently +watching three other black figures, or rather dots, which were climbing +slowly over Penolver. + +It was our clerical friend of Kynance; with whom, in the natural and +right civility of holiday-makers, we exchanged a courteous good morning. + +[Illustration: THE LION ROCKS--A SEA IN WHICH NOTHING CAN LIVE.] + +"Yes, those are my girls up on the cliff there. They have been bathing, +and are now going to walk to Cadgwith." + +"Then nobody fell into the Devil's Throat at Kynance? They all came +back to you with whole limbs?" + +"Yes," said he smiling, "and they went again for another long walk +in the afternoon. At night, when it turned out to be such splendid +moonlight, they actually insisted on going launce-fishing. Of course +you know about launce-fishing?" + +I pleaded my utter ignorance of that noble sport. + +"Oh, it is _the_ thing at the Lizard. My boys--and girls too--consider +it the best fun going. The launce is a sort of sand-eel peculiar to +these coasts. It swims about all day, and at night burrows in the sand +just above the waterline, where, when the moon shines on it, you can +trace the silvery gleam of the creature. So you stand up to your ankles +on wet sand, with a crooked iron spear which you dart in and hook him +up, keeping your left hand free to seize him with." + +"Easy fishing," said I, with a certain pity for the sand-eel. + +"Not so easy as appears. You are apt either to chop him right in +two, or miss him altogether, when off he wriggles in the sand and +disappears. My young people say it requires a practised hand and a +peculiar twist of the wrist, to have any success at all in launce +fishing. It can only be done on moonlight nights--the full moon and +a day or two after--and they are out half the night. They go about +barefoot, which is much safer than soaked shoes and stockings. About +midnight they light a fire on the sand, cook all the fish they have +caught, and have a grand supper, as they had last night. They came home +as merry as crickets about two o'clock this morning. Perhaps you might +not have noticed what a wonderful moonlight night it was?" + +I had; but it would not have occurred to me to spend it in standing for +hours up to the knees in salt water, catching unfortunate fish. + +However, tastes differ, and launce-fishing may be a prime delight to +some people; so I faithfully chronicle it, and the proper mode of +pursuing it, as one of the attractions at the Lizard. I am not aware +that it is practised at any other part of the Cornish coast, nor can +I say whether or not it was a pastime of King Arthur and his Knights. +One cannot imagine Sir Tristram or Sir Launcelot occupied in spearing a +small sand-eel. + +The bathing at Housel Cove was delightful as ever. And afterwards we +saw that very rare and beautiful sight, a perfect solar rainbow. Not +the familiar bow of Noah, but a great luminous circle round the sun, +like the halo often seen round the moon, extending over half the sky; +yellow at first, then gradually assuming faint prismatic tints. This +colouring, though never so bright as the ordinary arched rainbow, was +wonderfully tender and delicate. We stood a long time watching it, +till at last it melted slowly out of the sky, leaving behind a sense of +mystery, as of something we had never seen before and might never see +again in all our lives. + +It was a lovely day, bright and warm as midsummer, tempting us to some +distant excursion; but we had decided to investigate the Lizard Lights. +We should have been content to take them for granted, in their purely +poetical phase, as we had watched them night after night. But some of +us were blessed with scientific relatives, who would have despised us +utterly if we had spent a whole week at the Lizard and never gone to +see the Lizard Lights. So we felt bound to do our duty, and admire, if +we could not understand. + +Which we certainly did not. I chronicle with shame that the careful and +courteous explanations of that most intelligent young man, who met us +at the door of the huge white building, apparently quite glad to have +an opportunity of conducting us through it, were entirely thrown away. +We mounted ladders, we looked at Brobdingnagian lamps, we poked into +mysterious machinery for lighting them and for sounding the fog-horn, +we listened to all that was told us, and tried to look as if we took it +in. Very much interested we could not but be at such wonderful results +of man's invention, but as for comprehending! we came away with our +minds as dark as when we went in. + +I have always found through life that, next to being clever, the safest +thing is to know one's own ignorance and acknowledge it. Therefore let +me leave all description of the astonishing mechanism of the Lizard +Lights--I believe the first experiment of their kind, and not very +long established--to abler pens and more intelligent brains. To see +that young man, scarcely above the grade of a working man, handling +his instruments and explaining them and their uses, seeming to take +for granted that we could understand--which alas! we didn't, not +an atom!--inspired me with a sense of humiliation and awe. Also of +pride at the wonders this generation has accomplished, and is still +accomplishing; employing the gradually comprehended forces of Nature +against herself, as it were, and dominating her evil by ever-new +discoveries and applications of the recondite powers of good. + +The enormous body of light produced nightly--equal, I think he said, +to 30,000 candles--and the complicated machinery for keeping the +fog-horn continually at work, when even that gigantic blaze became +invisible--all this amount of skill, science, labour, and money, +freely expended for the saving of life, gave one a strong impression of +not only British power but British beneficence. Could King Arthur have +come back again from his sea-engulfed Land of Lyonesse, and stood where +we stood, beside the Lizard Lights, what would he have said to it all? + +[Illustration: HAULING IN THE BOATS.] + +Even though we did not understand, we were keenly interested in all we +saw, and still more so in the stories of wrecks which this young man +had witnessed even during the few years, or months--I forget which--of +his stay at the Lizard. He, too, agreed, that the rocks there, called +by the generic name of the Stags, were the most fatal of all on our +coasts to ships outward and homeward bound. Probably because in the +latter case, captain and crews get a trifle careless; and in the +former--as I have heard in sad explanation of many emigrant ships being +lost almost immediately after quitting port--they get drunk. Many of +the sailors are said to come on board "half-seas over," and could the +skilfullest of pilots save a ship with a drunken crew? + +Be that as it may, the fact remains, that throughout winter almost +every week's chronicle at the Lizard is the same story--wild storms, or +dense fogs, guns of distress heard, a hasty manning of the life-boat, +dragged with difficulty down the steep cliff-road, a brief struggle +with the awful sea, and then, even if a few lives are saved, with the +ship herself all is over. + +"Only last Christmas I saw a vessel go to pieces in ten minutes on the +rocks below there," said the man, after particularising several wrecks, +which seemed to have imprinted themselves on his memory with all their +incidents. "Yes, we have a bad time in winter, and the coastguard +men lead a risky life. They are the picked men of the service, and +tolerably well paid, but no money could ever pay them for what they go +through--or the fishermen, who generally are volunteers, and get little +or nothing." + +"It must be a hard life in these parts, especially in winter," we +observed. + +"Well, perhaps it is, but it's our business, you see." + +Yes, but not all people do their business, as the mismanagements and +mistakes of this world plainly show. + +Still, it is a good world, and we felt it so as we strolled along the +sunshiny cliff, talking over all these stories, tragical or heroic, +which had been told us in such a simple matter-of-fact way, as if they +were every-day occurrences. And then, while the young folks went on +"for a good scramble" over Penolver, I sat down for a quiet "think"; +that enforced rest, which, as years advance, becomes not painful, but +actually pleasant; in which, if one fails to solve the problems of the +universe, one is prone to con them over, wondering at them all. + +From the sunny sea and sunny sky, full of a silence so complete that I +could hear every wave as it broke on the unseen rocks below, my mind +wandered to that young fellow among his machinery, with his sickly +eager face and his short cough--indicating that _his_ "business" in +this world, over which he seemed so engrossed, might only too soon +come to an end. Between these apparently eternal powers of Nature, +so strong, so fierce, so irresistible, against which man fought so +magnificently with all his perfection of scientific knowledge and +accuracy of handiwork--and this poor frail human life, which in a +moment might be blown out like a candle, suddenly quenched in darkness, +"there is no skill or knowledge in the grave whither thou goest"--what +a contrast it was! + +And yet--and yet?--We shall sleep with our fathers, and some of us feel +sometimes so tired that we do not in the least mind going to sleep. But +notwithstanding this, notwithstanding everything without that seems to +imply our perishableness, we are conscious of something within which +is absolutely imperishable. We feel it only stronger and clearer as +life begins to melt away from us; as "the lights in the windows are +darkened, and the daughters of music are brought low." To the young, +death is often a terror, for it seems to put an end to the full, rich, +passionate life beyond which they can see nothing; but to the old, +conscious that this their tabernacle is being slowly dissolved, and yet +its mysterious inhabitant, the wonderful, incomprehensible _me_, is +exactly the same--thinks, loves, suffers, and enjoys, precisely as it +did heaven knows how many years ago--to them, death appears in quite +another shape. He is no longer Death the Enemy, but Death the Friend, +who may--who can tell?--give back all that life has denied or taken +away. He cannot harm us, and he may bless us, with the blessing of +loving children, who believe that, whatever happens, nothing can take +them out of their Father's arms. + +But I had not come to Cornwall to preach, except to myself now and +then, as this day. My silent sermon was all done by the time the +young folks came back, full of the beauties of their cliff walk, and +their affectionate regrets that I "could never manage it," but must +have felt so dull, sitting on a stone and watching the sheep and the +sea-gulls. Not at all! I was obliged to confess that I never am "dull," +as people call it, and love solitude almost as much as society. + +[Illustration: ENYS DODNAN AND PARDENICK POINTS.] + +So, each contented in our own way, we went merrily home, to find +waiting for us our cosy tea--the last!--and our faithful Charles, who, +according to agreement, appeared overnight, to take charge of us till +we got back to civilisation and railways. + +"Yes, ladies, here I am," said he with a beaming countenance. "And +I've got you the same carriage and the same horse, as you wished, and +I've come in time to give him a good night's rest. Now, when shall you +start, and what do you want to do to-morrow?" + +Our idea had been to take for our next resting-place Marazion. This +queer-named town had attracted us ever since the days when we learnt +geography. Since, we had heard a good deal about it: how it had +been inhabited by Jewish colonists, who bought tin from the early +Ph[oe]nician workers of the Cornish mines, and been called by them +Mara-Zion--bitter Zion--corrupted by the common people into Market-Jew. +It was a quiet place, with St. Michael's Mount opposite; and attracted +us much more than genteel Penzance. So did a letter we got from the +landlord of its one hotel, promising to take us in, and make us +thoroughly comfortable. + +Could we get there in one day? Charles declared we could, and even see +a good deal on the road. + +"We'll go round by Mullion. Mary will be delighted to get another +peep at you ladies, and while I rest the horse you can go in and look +at the old church--it's very curious, they say. And then we'll go on +to Gunwalloe,--there's another church there, close by the sea, built +by somebody who was shipwrecked. But then it's so old and so small. +However, we can stop and look at it if you like." + +His good common sense, and kindliness, when he might so easily have +done his mere duty and taken us the shortest and ugliest route, showing +us nothing, decided us to leave all in Charles's hands, and start at +10 A.M. for Penzance, _viâ_ Helstone, where we all wished to +stay an hour or two, and find out a "friend," the only one we had in +Cornwall. + +So all was settled, with but a single regret, that several boating +excursions we had planned with John Curgenven had all fallen through, +and we should never behold some wonderful sea-caves between the Lizard +and Cadgwith, which we had set our hearts upon visiting. + +Charles fingered his cap with a thoughtful air. "I don't see why you +shouldn't, ladies. If I was to go direct and tell John Curgenven to +have a boat ready at Church Cove, and we was to start at nine instead +of ten, and drive there, the carriage might wait while you rowed to +the caves and back; we should still reach Helstone by dinner-time, and +Marazion before dark." + +"We'll do it!" was the unanimous resolve. And at this addition to his +work Charles looked actually pleased! + +So--all was soon over, our easy packing done, our bill paid--a very +small one--our goodnights said to the kindly handmaid, Esther, who +hoped we would come back again some time, and promised to keep the +artistic mural decorations of our little parlour in memory of us. My +young folks went to bed, and then, a little before midnight, when all +the house was quiet, I put a shawl over my head, unlatched the innocent +door--no bolts or bars at the Lizard--and went out into the night. + +What a night it was!--mild as summer, clear as day: the full moon +sailing aloft in an absolutely cloudless sky. Not a breath, not a +sound--except the faint thud-thud of the in-coming waves, two miles +off, at Kynance, the outline of which, and of the whole coast, was +distinctly visible. A silent earth, lying under a silent heaven. +Looking up, one felt almost like a disembodied soul, free to cleave +through infinite space and gain--what? + +Is it human or divine, this ceaseless longing after something never +attained, this craving after the eternal life, which, if fully believed +in, fully understood, would take all the bitterness out of this life? +And yet, that knowledge is not given. + +But so much is given, and all given is so infinitely good, except where +we ourselves turn it into evil, that surely more, and better, will be +given to us by and by. + +And so, to bed--to bed! Those only truly enjoy life who fear not death: +who can say of the grave as if it were their bed: "I will lay me down +in peace and take my rest, for it is Thou only, O God, who makest me to +dwell in safety." + + + + +DAY THE NINTH + + +And our last at the Lizard, which a week ago had been to us a mere word +or dot in a map; now we carried away from it a living human interest in +everything and everybody. + +Esther bade us a cordial farewell: Mrs. Curgenven, standing at the +door of her serpentine shop, repeated the good wishes, and informed +us that John and his boat had already started for Church Cove. As we +drove through the bright little Lizard Town, and past the Church of +Landewednack, wondering if we should ever see either again, we felt +quite sad. + +But sentimental considerations soon vanished in practical alarms. +Leaving the carriage and Charles at the nearest point to the Cove, we +went down the steep descent, and saw John rocking in his boat, and +beckoning to us with a bland and smiling countenance. But between us +and him lay a sort of causeway, of the very roughest rocks, slippery +with sea-weed, and beat upon by waves--such waves! Yet clearly, if we +meant to get into the boat at all, we must seize our opportunity and +jump in between the flux and reflux of that advancing tide. + +I am not a coward: I love boats, and was well used to them in my youth, +but now--my heart misgave me. There were but two alternatives--to +stop the pleasure of the whole party, and leave Cornwall with these +wonderful sea-caves unseen, or to let my children go alone. Neither was +possible; so I hailed a sturdy youth at work hard by, and asked him if +he would take charge of an old lady across the rocks. He grinned from +ear to ear, but came forward, and did his duty manfully and kindly. My +young folks, light as feathers, bounded after; and with the help of +John Curgenven, chivalrous and careful as ever, we soon found ourselves +safely in the boat. + +[Illustration: JOHN CURGENVEN FISHING.] + +Safe, but not quite happy. "Here we go up, up, up, and here we go down, +down, down," was the principle of our voyage, the most serious one we +ever took in an open boat with a single pair of oars. Never did I see +such waves,--at least, never did I float upon them, in a boat that went +tossing like a bit of cork out into the open sea. + +John seemed not to mind them in the least. His strong arms swept the +boat along, and he still found breath to talk to us, pointing out the +great gloomy cliffs we were passing under, and telling us stories of +wrecks, the favourite theme--and no wonder. + +This sunshiny morning that iron-bound coast looked awful enough; what +must it have looked like, on the winter night when the emigrant ship +_Brest_ went down! + +"Yes, it was about ten o'clock at night," said John. "I was fast asleep +in bed, but they knocked me up; I got on my clothes and was off in +five minutes. They are always glad enough to get us fishermen, the +coastguard are. Mine was the first boat-load we brought ashore; we +would only take women and children that time. They were all in their +night-gowns, and they couldn't speak a word of English, but we made +them understand somehow. One woman threw her three children down to me, +and stayed behind on the wreck with two more." + +"Were the women frightened?" + +"Oh, no, they were very quiet, dazed like. Some of them seemed to be +saying their prayers. But they made no fuss at all, not even the little +ones. They lay down in the bottom of the boat, and we rowed ashore +as fast as we could, to Cadgwith. Then we rowed back and fetched two +boatloads more. We saved a lot of lives that wreck, but only their +lives; they had scarcely a rag of clothes on, and some of the babies +were as naked as when they were born." + +"And who took them in?" + +"Everybody: we always do it," answered John, as if surprised at +the question. "The fishermen's cottages were full, and so was the +parsonage. We gave them clothes, and kept them till they could be sent +away. Yes, it was an awful night; I got something to remember it by, +here." + +He held out his hand, from which we noticed half of one finger was +missing. + +"It got squeezed off with a rope somehow. I didn't heed it much at +the time," said John carelessly. "But look, we're at the first of the +caves. I'll row in close, ladies, and let you see it." + +So we had to turn our minds from the vision of the wreck of the +_Brest_, which John's simple words made so terribly vivid, to examine +Raven's Ugo, and Dolor Ugo; _ugo_ is Cornish for cave. Over the +entrance of the first a pair of ravens have built from time immemorial. +It is just accessible, the opening being above the sea-line, and hung +with quantities of sea-ferns. Here in smuggling days, many kegs of +spirits used to be secreted: and many a wild drama no doubt has been +acted there--daring encounters between smugglers and coastguard men, +not bloodless on either side. + +Dolor Ugo is now inaccessible and unusable. Its only floor is of +heaving water, a deep olive green, and so clear that we could see the +fishes swimming about pursuing a shoal of launce. Its high-vaulted roof +and sides were tinted all colours--rose-pink, rich dark brown, and +purple. The entrance was wide enough to admit a boat, but it gradually +narrowed into impenetrable darkness. How far inland it goes no one can +tell, as it could only be investigated by swimming, a rather dangerous +experiment. Boats venture as far as the daylight goes; and it is a +favourite trick of the boatman suddenly to fire off a pistol, which +reverberates like thunder through the mysterious gloom of the cave. + +A solemn place; an awful place, some of us thought, as we rowed in, and +out again, into the sunshiny open sea. Which we had now got used to; +and it was delicious to go dancing like a feather up and down, trusting +to John Curgenven's stout arm and fearless, honest face. We felt sad to +think this would be our last sight of him and of the magnificent Lizard +coast. But the minutes were lessening, and we had some way still to +row. Also to land, which meant a leap between the waves upon slippery +sea-weedy rocks. In silent dread I watched my children accomplish this +feat, and then-- + +Well, it is over, and I sit here writing these details. But I would +not do it again, not even for the pleasure of revisiting Dolor Ugo and +having a row with John Curgenven. + +Honest fellow! he looked relieved when he saw "the old lady" safe on +_terra firma_, and we left him waving adieux, as he "rocked in his +boat in the bay." May his stout arms and kindly heart long remain to +him! May his summer tourists be many and his winter shipwrecks few! +I am sure he will always do his duty, and see that other people do +theirs, or, like the proverbial Cornishmen, he "will know the reason +why." + +Charles was ready; waiting patiently in front of a blacksmith's shop. +But, alas! fate had overtaken us in the shape of an innocent leak in +John Curgenven's boat; nothing, doubtless, to him, who was in the habit +of baling it out with his boots, and then calmly putting them on again, +but a little inconvenient to us. To drive thirty miles with one's +garments soaked up to the knees was not desirable. + +There was a cottage close by, whence came the gleam of a delicious fire +and the odour of ironing clothes. We went in: the mistress, evidently +a laundress, advanced and offered to dry us--which she did, chattering +all the while in the confidential manner of country folks. + +A hard working, decent body she was, and as for her house, it was a +perfect picture of cleanliness and tidiness. Its two rooms, kitchen and +bedroom, were absolutely speckless. When we noticed this, and said we +found the same in many Cornish cottages; she almost seemed offended at +the praise. + +"Oh, that's nothing, ma'am. We hereabouts all likes to have our places +tidy. Mine's not over tidy to-day because of the washing. I hadn't time +to clean up. But if you was to come of a Sunday. Look there!" Her eye +caught something in a dark corner, at which she flew, apron in hand. "I +declare, I'm quite ashamed. I didn't think we had one in the house." + +"One what?" + +"One spider web!" + +Dried, warmed, and refreshed, but having found the greatest difficulty +in inducing the good woman to receive any tangible thanks for her +kindness, we proceeded on our journey; going over the same ground which +we had traversed already, and finding Pradenack Down as bleak and +beautiful as ever. Our first halt was at the door of Mary Mundy, who, +with her unappreciated brother, ran out to meet us, and looked much +disappointed when she found we had not come to stay. + +"But you will come some time, ladies, and I'll make you so comfortable. +And you'll give my duty to the professor"--it was vain to explain that +four hundred miles lay between our home and his. "I hope he's quite +well. He was a very nice gentleman, please'm. I shall be delighted to +see him again, please'm," &c., &c. + +We left the three--Mary, her brother, and Charles--chattering together +in a dialect which I do not attempt to reproduce, and sometimes could +hardly understand. Us, the natives indulged with their best English, +but among themselves they talked the broadest Cornish. + +It was a very old church, and a preternaturally old beadle showed it in +a passive manner, not recognising in the least its points of interest +and beauty, except some rows of open benches with ancient oak backs, +wonderfully carved. + +"Our vicar dug them up from under the flooring and turned them into +pews. There was a gentleman here the other day who said there was +nothing like them in all England." + +Most curious, in truth, they were, and suited well the fine old +building--a specimen of how carefully and lavishly our forefathers +built "for God." We, who build for ourselves, are rather surprised +to find in out-of-the-way nooks like this, churches that in size and +adornment must have cost years upon years of loving labour as well as +money. + +It was pleasant to know that the present incumbent, a man of +archæological tastes, appreciated his blessings, and took the utmost +care of his beautiful old church. Success to him! even though he cannot +boast the power of his predecessor, the Reverend Thomas Flavel, who +died in 1682, and whose monument in the chancel really expresses the +sentiments--in epitaph--of the period: + + "Earth, take thine earth; my sin, let Satan have it; + The world my goods; my soul my God who gave it. + For from these four, Earth, Satan, World, and God, + My flesh, my sin, my goods, my soul, I had." + +But it does not mention that the reverend gentleman was the best +_ghost-layer_ in all England, and that when he died his ghost also +required to be laid, by a brother clergyman, in a spot on the down +still pointed out by the people of Mullion, who, being noted for +extreme longevity, have passed down this tradition from generation +to generation, with an earnest credulity that we of more enlightened +counties can hardly understand. + +From Mullion we went on to Gunwalloe. Its church, "small and old," as +Charles had depreciatingly said, had been so painfully "restored," +and looked so bran-new and uninteresting that we contented ourselves +with a distant look. It was close to the sea--probably built on the +very spot where its pious founder had been cast ashore. The one curious +point about it was the detached belfry, some yards distant from the +church itself. It sat alone in a little cove, down which a sluggish +river crawled quietly seaward. A sweet quiet place, but haunted, as +usual, by tales of cruel shipwrecks--of sailors huddled for hours on +a bit of rock just above the waves, till a boat could put out and +save the few survivors; of sea treasures continually washed ashore +from lost ships--Indian corn, coffee, timber, dollars--many are still +found in the sand after a storm. And one treasure more, of which the +recollection is still kept at Gunwalloe, "a little dead baby in its cap +and night-gown, with a necklace of coral beads." + +After this our road turned inland. Our good horse, with the dogged +persistency of Cornish horses and Cornish men, plodded on mile after +mile. Sometimes for an hour or more we did not meet a living soul; +then we came upon a stray labourer, or passed through a village where +healthy-looking children, big-eyed, brown-faced, and dirty-handed, +picturesque if not pretty, stared at us from cottage doors, or from the +gates of cottage gardens full of flowers and apples. + +Those apples! They were a picture. Hungry and thirsty, we could not +resist them. After passing several trees, hung thickly with delicious +fruit, we attacked the owner of one of them, a comely young woman, with +a baby in her arms and another at her gown. + +"Oh yes, ma'am, you may have as many apples as you like, if your young +ladies will go and get them." + +And while they did it, she stood talking by the carriage door, pouring +out to me her whole domestic history with a simple frankness worthy of +the golden age. + +"No, really I couldn't," putting back my payment--little enough-- for +the splendid basket of apples which the girls brought back in triumph. +"This is such a good apple year; the pigs would get them if the young +ladies didn't. You're kindly welcome to them--well then, if you are +determined, say sixpence." + +On which magnificent "sixpenn'orth," we lived for days! Indeed I think +we brought some of it home as a specimen of Cornish fruit and Cornish +liberality. + +[Illustration: THE ARMED KNIGHT AND THE LONG SHIP'S LIGHTHOUSE.] + +Helstone was reached at last, and we were not sorry for rest and food +in the old-fashioned inn, whence we could look out of window, and +contemplate the humours of the little town, which doubtless considered +itself a very great one. It was market day, and the narrow street was +thronged with beasts and men--the latter as sober as the former, +which spoke well for Cornwall. Sober and civil too was every one we +addressed in asking our way to the house of our unknown friend, whose +only address we had was Helstone. But he seemed well known in the town, +though neither a rich man, nor a great man, nor--No, I cannot say he +was not a clever man, for in his own line, mechanical engineering, he +must have been exceedingly clever. And he was what people call "a great +character;" would have made such an admirable study for a novelist, +manipulated into an unrecognisable ideal--the only way in which it is +fair to put people in books. When I saw him I almost regretted that I +write novels no more. + +We passed through the little garden--all ablaze with autumn colour, +every inch utilised for either flowers, vegetables, or fruit--went into +the parlour, sent our cards and waited the result. + +In two minutes our friend appeared, and gave us such a welcome! But to +explain it I must trench a little upon the sanctities of private life, +and tell the story of this honest Cornishman. It will not harm him. + +When still young he went to Brazil, and was employed by an English +gold-mining company there, for some years. Afterwards he joined +an engineering firm, and superintended dredging, the erection of +saw-mills, &c., finally building a lighthouse, of which latter work he +had the sole charge, and was exceedingly proud. His conscientiousness, +probity, and entire reliableness made him most valuable to the +firm; whom he served faithfully for many years. When they, as well +as himself, returned to England, he still kept up a correspondence +with them, preserving towards every member of the family the most +enthusiastic regard and devotion. + +He rushed into the parlour, a tall, gaunt, middle-aged man, with a +shrewd, kindly face, which beamed all over with delight, as he began +shaking hands indiscriminately, saying how kind it was of us to come, +and how welcome we were. + +It was explained which of us he had specially to welcome, the others +being only humble appendages, friends of the family, this well-beloved +family, whose likenesses for two generations we saw everywhere about +the room. + +"Yes, miss, there they all are, your dear grandfather" (alas, only a +likeness now!), "your father, and your uncle. They were all so good to +me, and I would do anything for them, or for any one of their name. If +I got a message that they wanted me for anything, I'd be off to London, +or to Brazil, or anywhere, in half-an-hour." + +And he really looked as if he would. + +"But what will you take?" added the good man when the rapture and +excitement of the moment had a little subsided, and his various +questions as to the well-being of "the family" had been asked and +answered. "You have dined, you say, but you'll have a cup of tea. My +wife (that's the little maid I used to talk to your father about, miss; +I always told him I wouldn't stay in Brazil, I must go back to England +and marry my little maid), my wife makes the best cup of tea in all +Cornwall. Here she is!" + +And there entered, in afternoon gown and cap, probably just put on, a +middle-aged, but still comely matron, who insisted that, even at this +early hour--3 P.M.--to get a cup of tea for us was "no trouble +at all." + +"Indeed, she wouldn't think anything a trouble, no more than I should, +miss, if it was for your family. They never forget me, nor I them." + +It was here suggested that they were not a "forgetting" family. Nor +was he a man likely to be soon forgotten. While the cup of tea, which +proved to be a most sumptuous meal, was preparing, he took us all over +his house, which was full of foreign curiosities, and experimental +inventions. One, I remember, being a musical instrument, a sort of +organ, which he had begun making when a mere boy, and taken with him +all the way to Brazil and back. It had now found refuge in the little +room he called his "workshop," which was filled with odds and ends that +would have been delightful to a mechanical mind. He expounded them with +enthusiasm, and we tried not to betray an ignorance, which in some of +us would have been a sort of hereditary degradation. + +"Ah! they were clever--your father and your uncle!--and how proud we +all were when we finished our lighthouse, and got the Emperor to light +it up for the first time. Look here, ladies, what do you think this is?" + +He took out a small parcel, and solemnly unwrapped from it fold after +fold of paper, till he came to the heart of it--a small wax candle! + +"This was the candle the Emperor used to light our lighthouse. I've +kept it for nearly thirty years, and I'll keep it as long as I live. +Every year on the anniversary of the day I light it, drink his +Majesty's health, and the health of all your family, miss, and then I +put it out again. So"--carefully re-wrapping the relic in its numerous +envelopes--"so I hope it will last my time." + +Here the mistress came behind her good man, and they exchanged a +smile--the affectionate smile of two who had never been more than two, +Darby and Joan, but all sufficient to each other. She announced that +tea was ready. And such a tea! How we got through it I hardly know, +but travelling is hungry work, and the viands were delicious. The +beneficence of our kind hosts, however, was not nearly done. + +"Come, ladies, I'll show you my garden, and--(give me a basket and the +grape-scissors,)" added he in a conjugal aside. Which resulted in our +carrying away with us the biggest bunches in the whole vinery, as well +as a quantity of rosy apples, stuffed into every available pocket and +bag. + +"Nonsense, nonsense," was the answer to vain remonstrances. "D'ye +think I wouldn't give the best of everything I had to your family? and +so would my missis too. How your father used to laugh at me about my +little maid! But he understood it for all that. Oh yes, I'm glad I came +home. And now your father and your uncle are home too, and perhaps some +day they'll come to see me down here--wouldn't it be a proud day for +me! You'll tell them so?" + +It was touching, and rare as touching, this passionate personal +fidelity. It threw us back, at least such of us as were sentimentally +inclined, upon that something in Cornish nature which found its +exposition in Arthur and his faithful knights, down to "bold Sir +Bedevere," and apparently, is still not lost in Cornwall. + +With a sense of real regret, feeling that it would be long ere we +might meet his like--such shrewd simplicity, earnest enthusiasm, and +exceeding faithfulness--we bade good-bye to the honest man; leaving him +and his wife standing at their garden-gate, an elderly Adam and Eve, +desiring nothing outside their own little paradise. Which of us could +say more, or as much? + +Gratefully we "talked them over," as we drove on through the pretty +country round Helstone--inland country; for we had no time to go and +see the Loe Pool, a small lake, divided from the sea by a bar of sand. +This is supposed to be the work of the Cornwall man-demon, Tregeagle; +and periodically cut through, with solemn ceremonial, by the Mayor of +Helstone, when the "meeting of the waters," fresh and salt, is said to +be an extremely curious sight. But we did not see it, nor yet Nonsloe +House, close by, which is held by the tenure of having to provide a +boat and nets whenever the Prince of Wales or the Duke of Cornwall +wishes to fish in the Loe Pool. A circumstance which has never happened +yet, certainly! + +Other curiosities _en route_ we also missed, the stones of +Tremenkeverne, half a ton each, used as missiles in a notable fight +between two saints, St. Just of the Land's End, and St. Keverne of the +Lizard, and still lying in a field to prove the verity of the legend. +Also the rock of Goldsithney, where, when the "fair land of Lyonesse" +was engulfed by the sea, an ancestor of the Trevelyans saved himself by +swimming his horse, and landing; and various other remarkable places, +with legends attached, needing much credulity, or imagination, to +believe in. + +But, fearing to be benighted ere reaching Marazion, we passed them all, +and saw nothing more interesting than the ruins of disused tin mines, +which Charles showed us, mournfully explaining how the mining business +had of late years drifted away from Cornwall, and how hundreds of the +once thriving community had been compelled to emigrate or starve. As we +neared Marazion, these melancholy wrecks with their little hillocks of +mining debris rose up against the evening sky, the image of desolation. +And then St. Michael's Mount, the picture in little of Mont St. Michel, +in Normandy, appeared in the middle of Mount's Bay. Lastly, after +a gorgeous sunset, in a golden twilight and silvery moonlight, we +entered Marazion;-and found it, despite its picturesque name, the most +commonplace little town imaginable! + +We should have regretted our rash decision, and gone on to Penzance, +but for the hearty welcome given us at a most comfortable and home-like +inn, which determined us to keep to our first intention, and stay. + +So, after our habit of making the best of things, we walked down to the +ugly beach, and investigated the dirty-looking bay--in the lowest of +all low tides, with a soppy, sea-weedy causeway running across to St. +Michael's Mount. By advice of Charles, we made acquaintance with an old +boatman he knew, a Norwegian who had drifted hither--shipwrecked, I +believe--settled down and married an English woman, but whose English +was still of the feeblest kind. However, he had an honest face; so we +engaged him to take us out bathing early to-morrow. + +"And to-night, ladies?" suggested the faithful Charles. "Wouldn't you +like to row round the Mount?--When you've had your tea, I'll come back +for you, and help you down to the shore--it's rather rough, but nothing +like what you have done, ma'am," added he encouragingly. "And it will +be bright moonlight, and the Mount will look so fine." + +So, the spirit of adventure conquering our weariness, we went. When +I think how it looked next morning--the small, shallow bay, with its +toy-castle in the centre, I am glad our first vision of it was under +the glamour of moonlight, with the battlemented rock throwing dark +shadows across the shimmering sea. In the mysterious beauty of that +night row round the Mount, we could imagine anything; its earliest +inhabitant, the giant Cormoran, killed by that "valiant Cornishman," +the illustrious Jack; the lovely St. Keyne, a king's daughter, who came +thither on pilgrimage; and, passing down from legend to history, Henry +de la Pomeroy, who, being taken prisoner, caused himself to be bled to +death in the Castle; Sir John Arundel, slain on the sands, and buried +in the Chapel; Perkin Warbeck's unfortunate wife, who took refuge at +St. Michael's shrine, but was dragged thence. And so on, and so on, +through the centuries, to the family of St. Aubyn, who bought it in +1660, and have inhabited it ever since. "Very nice people," we heard +they were; who have received here the Queen, the Prince of Wales, and +other royal personages. What a contrast to the legendary Cormoran! + +Yet, looking up as we rowed under the gloomy rock, we could fancy his +giant ghost sitting there, on the spot where he killed his wife, for +bringing in her apron greenstone, instead of granite, to build the +chapel with. Which being really built of greenstone the story must be +true! What a pleasure it is to be able to believe anything! + +Some of us could have stayed out half the night, floating along in the +mild soft air and dreamy moonlight, which made even the commonplace +little town look like a fairy scene, and exalted St. Michael's Mount +into a grand fortress, fit for its centuries of legendary lore--but +others preferred going to bed. + +So we landed, and retired. Not however without taking a long look out +of the window upon the bay, which now, at high tide, was one sheet of +rippling moon-lit water, with the grim old Mount, full of glimmering +lights like eyes, sitting silent in the midst of the silent sea. + +[Illustration: CORNISH FISHERMAN.] + + + + +DAY THE TENTH + + +I cannot advise Marazion as a bathing place. What a down-come from the +picturesque vision of last night, to a small ugly fishy-smelling beach, +which seemed to form a part of the town and its business, and was +overlooked from everywhere! Yet on it two or three family groups were +evidently preparing for a dip, or rather a wade of about a quarter of a +mile in exceedingly dirty sea water. + +"This will never do," we said to our old Norwegian. "You must row us to +some quiet cove along the shore, and away from the town." + +He nodded his head, solemn and mute as the dumb boatman of dead Elaine, +rowed us out seaward for about half-a-mile, and then proceeded to +fasten the boat to a big stone, and walk ashore. The water still did +not come much above his knees--he seemed quite indifferent to it. But +we? + +Well, we could but do at Rome as the Romans do. Toilette in an open +boat was evidently the custom of the country. And the sun was warm, the +sea safe and shallow. Indeed, so rapidly did it subside, that by the +time the bath was done, we were aground, and had to call at the top of +our voices to our old man, who sat, with his back to us, dim in the +distance, on another big stone, calmly smoking the pipe of peace. + +"We'll not try this again," was the unanimous resolve, as, after +politely declining a suggestion that "the ladies should walk ashore--" +did he think we were amphibious?--we got ourselves floated off at last, +and rowed to the nearest landing point, the entrance to St. Michael's +Mount. + +Probably nowhere in England is found the like of this place. Such +a curious mingling of a mediæval fortress and modern residence; of +antiquarian treasures and everyday business; for at the foot of the +rock is a fishing village of about thirty cottages, which carries +on a thriving trade; and here also is a sort of station for the tiny +underground-railway, which worked by a continuous chain, fulfils the +very necessary purpose (failing Giant Cormoran, and wife) of carrying +up coals, provisions, luggage, and all other domestic necessaries to +the hill top. + +Thither we climbed by a good many weary steps, and thought, delightful +as it may be to dwell on the top of a rock in the midst of the sea, +like eagles in an eyrie, there are certain advantages in living on a +level country road, or even in a town street. How in the world do the +St. Aubyns manage when they go out to dinner? Two years afterwards, +when I read in the paper that one of the daughters of the house, +leaning over the battlements, had lost her balance and fallen down, +mercifully unhurt, to the rocky slope below--the very spot where we +to-day sat so quietly gazing out on the lovely sea view--I felt with +a shudder that on the whole, it would be a trying thing to bring up a +young family on St. Michael's Mount. + +Still, generation after generation of honourable St. Aubyns have +brought up their families there, and oh! what a beautiful spot it is! +How fresh, and yet mild blew the soft sea-wind outside of it, and +inside, what endless treasures there were for the archæological mind! +The chapel alone was worth a morning's study, even though shown--odd +anachronism--by a footman in livery, who pointed out with great gusto +the entrance to a vault discovered during the last repairs, where was +found the skeleton of a large man--his bones only--no clue whatever as +to who he was or when imprisoned there. The "Jeames" of modern days +told us this tale with a noble indifference. Nothing of the kind was +likely to happen to him. + +Further still we were fortunate enough to penetrate, and saw the Chevy +Chase Hall, with its cornice of hunting scenes, the drawing-room, the +school-room--only fancy learning lessons there, amidst the veritable +evidence of the history one was studying! And perhaps the prettiest bit +of it all was our young guide, herself a St. Aubyn, with her simple +grace and sweet courtesy, worthy of one of the fair ladies worshipped +by King Arthur's knights. + +[Illustration: THE SEINE BOAT--A PERILOUS MOMENT.] + +We did not like encroaching on her kindness, though we could have +stayed all day, admiring the curious things she showed us. So we +descended the rock, and crossed the causeway, now dry, but very rough +walking--certainly St. Michael's Mount has its difficulties as a modern +dwelling-house--and went back to our inn. For, having given our +horse a forenoon's rest, we planned a visit to that spot immortalised +by nursery rhyme-- + + "As I was going to St. Ives + I met a man with seven wives. + Each wife had seven sacks; + Each sack had seven cats; + Each cat had seven kits; + Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,-- + How many were there going to St. Ives?" + +--One; and after we had been there, we felt sure he never went again! + +There were two roads, we learnt, to that immortal town; one very good, +but dull; the other bad--and beautiful. We chose the latter, and never +repented. + +Nor, in passing through Penzance, did we repent not having taken up our +quarters there. It was pretty, but so terribly "genteel," so extremely +civilised. Glancing up at the grand hotel, we thought with pleasure of +our old-fashioned inn at Marazion, where the benign waiter took quite +a fatherly interest in our proceedings, even to giving us for dinner +our very own blackberries, gathered yesterday on the road, and politely +hindering another guest from helping himself to half a dishful, as +"they belonged to the young ladies." Truly, there are better things in +life than fashionable hotels. + +But the neighbourhood of Penzance is lovely. Shrubs and flowers such +as one sees on the shores of the Mediterranean grew and flourished in +cottage-gardens, and the forest trees we drove under, whole avenues +of them, were very fine; gentlemen's seats appeared here and there, +surrounded with the richest vegetation, and commanding lovely views. As +the road gradually mounted upwards, we saw, clear as in a panorama, the +whole coast from the Lizard Point to the Land's End,--which we should +behold to-morrow. + +For, hearing that every week-day about a hundred tourists in carriages, +carts, and omnibuses, usually flocked thither, we decided that the +desire of our lives, the goal of our pilgrimage, should be visited +by us on a Sunday. We thought that to drive us thither in solitary +Sabbatic peace would be fully as good for Charles's mind and morals as +to hang all day idle about Marazion; and he seemed to think so himself. +Therefore, in prospect of to-morrow, he dealt very tenderly with his +horse to-day, and turned us out to walk up the heaviest hills, of which +there were several, between Penzance and Castle-an-Dinas. + +"There it is," he said at last, stopping in the midst of a wide moor +and pointing to a small building, sharp against the sky. "The carriage +can't get further, but you can go on, ladies, and I'll stop and gather +some blackberries for you." + +For brambles, gorse bushes, and clumps of fading heather, with one or +two small stunted trees, were now the only curiosities of this, King +Arthur's famed hunting castle, and hunting ground, which spread before +us for miles and miles. Passing a small farm-house, we made our way to +the building Charles pointed out, standing on the highest ridge of the +promontory, whose furthest point is the Land's End. Standing there, we +could see--or could have seen but that the afternoon had turned grey +and slightly misty--the ocean on both sides. Inland, the view seemed +endless. Roughtor and Brown Willy, two Dartmoor hills, are said to be +visible sometimes. Nearer, little white dots of houses show the mining +districts of Redruth and Camborne. + +But here, all was desolate solitude. A single wayfarer, looking like a +working man in his Sunday best going to visit friends, but evidently +tired, as if he had walked for miles, just glanced at us, and passed +on. We stood, all alone, on the very spot where many a time must have +stood King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Sir Launcelot, and the other +knights--or the real human beings, whether barbarian or not, who formed +the originals of those mythical personages. + +All had vanished now. Nothing was left but a common-place little tower, +built up of the fragments of the old castle, and a wide, pathless +moor, over which the wind sighed, and the mist crept. No memorial +whatever of King Arthur, except the tradition--which time and change +have been powerless to annihilate--that such a man once existed. The +long vitality which the legend keeps proves that he must have been +a remarkable man in his day. Romance itself cannot exist without a +foundation in reality. + +So I preached to my incredulous juniors, who threw overboard King +Arthur and took to blackberry-gathering; and to conversation with a +most comely Cornishwoman, milking the prettiest of Cornish cows in the +lonely farm-yard, which was the only sign of humanity for miles and +miles. We admired herself and her cattle; we drank her milk, offering +for it the usual payment. But the picturesque milkmaid shook her head +and demanded just double what even the dearest of London milk-sellers +would have asked for the quantity. Which sum we paid in silence, +and I only record the fact here in order to state that spite of our +foreboding railway friend at Falmouth, this was the only instance in +which we were ever "taken in," or in the smallest degree imposed upon, +in Cornwall. + +Another hour, slowly driving down the gradual slope of the country, +through a mining district much more cheerful than that beyond Marazion. +The mines were all apparently in full work, and the mining villages +were pretty, tidy, and cosy-looking, even picturesque. Approaching St. +Ives the houses had quite a foreign look, but when we descended to +the town, its dark, narrow streets, pervaded by a "most ancient and +fish-like smell," were anything but attractive. + +As was our hotel, where, as a matter of duty, we ordered tea, but +doubted if we should enjoy it, and went out again to see what little +there seemed to be seen, puzzling our way through the gloomy and not +too fragrant streets, till at last in despair we stopped a bland, +elderly, Methodist-minister-looking gentleman, and asked him the way to +the sea. + +He eyed us over. "You're strangers here, ma'am?" + +I owned the humbling fact, as the inhabitant of St. Ives must doubtless +consider it. + +"And is it the pilchard fishery you want to see? It is just beginning. +A few pilchards have been seen already. There are the boats, the +fishermen are all getting ready. It's a fine sight to see them start. +Would you like to come and look at them?" + +He had turned back and was walking with us down the street, pointing +out everything that occurred to him as noticeable, in the kindest and +civilest way. When we apologised for troubling him, and would have +parted company, our friend made no attempt to go. + +"Oh, I've nothing at all to do, except"--he took out the biggest and +most respectable of watches--"except to attend a prayer-meeting at +half-past six. I should have time to show you the town; we think it is +a very nice little town. I ought to know it; I've lived in it, boy and +man for thirty-seven years. But now I have left my business to my sons, +and I just go about and amuse myself, looking into the shop now and +then just for curiosity. You must have seen my old shop, ladies, if you +came down that street." + +[Illustration: ST. IVES.] + +Which he named, and also gave us his own name, which we had seen over +the shop door, but I shall not record either. Not that I think the +honest man is ever likely to read such "light" literature as this book, +or to recall the three wanderers to whom he was so civil and kind, and +upon whom he poured out an amount of local and personal facts, which +we listened to--as a student of human nature is prone to do--with an +amused interest in which the comic verged on the pathetic. How large +to each man seems his own little world, and what child-like faith he +has in its importance to other people! I shall always recall our friend +at St. Ives, with his prayer-meetings, his chapel-goings--I concluded +he was a Methodist, a sect very numerous in Cornwall--his delight in +his successful shop and well-brought-up sons, who managed it so well, +leaving him to enjoy his _otium cum dignitate_--no doubt a municipal +dignity, for he showed us the Town Hall with great gusto. Evidently to +his honest, simple soul, St. Ives was the heart of the world. + +By and by again he pulled out the turnip-like watch. "Just ten minutes +to get to my prayer-meeting, and I never like to be late, I have been a +punctual man all my life, ma'am," added he, half apologetically, till +I suggested that this was probably the cause of his peace and success. +Upon which he smiled, lifted his hat with a benign adieu, hoped we had +liked St. Ives--we had liked his company at any rate--and with a final +pointing across the street, "There's my shop, ladies, if you would care +to look at it," trotted away to his prayer-meeting. + +I believe the neighbourhood of St. Ives, especially Tregenna, its +ancient mansion transformed into an hotel, is exceedingly pretty, but +night was falling fast, and we saw nothing. Speedily we despatched a +most untempting meal, and hurried Charles's departure, lest we should +be benighted, as we nearly were, during the long miles of straight and +unlovely road--the good road--between here and Penzance. We had done +our duty, we had seen the place, but as, in leaving it behind us, we +laughingly repeated the nursery rhyme, we came to the conclusion that +the man who was "_going_ to St. Ives" was the least fortunate of all +those notable individuals. + + + + +DAY THE ELEVENTH + + +The last thing before retiring, we had glanced out on a gloomy sea, a +starless sky, pitch darkness, broken only by those moving lights on St. +Michael's Mount, and thought anxiously of the morrow. It would be hard, +if after journeying thus far and looking forward to it so many years, +the day on which we went to the Land's End should turn out a wet day! +Still "hope on, hope ever," as we used to write in our copy-books. Some +of us, I think, still go on writing it in empty air, and will do so +till the hand is dust. + +It was with a feeling almost of solemnity that we woke and looked out +on the dawn, grey and misty, but still not wet. To be just on the point +of gaining the wish of a life-time, however small, is a fact rare +enough to have a certain pathos in it. We slept again, and trusted +for the best, which by breakfast-time really came, in flickering +sun-gleams, and bits of hopeful blue sky. We wondered for the last +time, as we had wondered for half a century, "what the Land's End would +be like," and then started, rather thoughtful than merry, to find out +the truth of the case. + +Glad as we were to have for our expedition this quiet Sunday instead +of a tumultuous week day, conscience smote us in driving through +Penzance, with the church-bells ringing, and the people streaming along +to morning service, all in their Sunday best. Perhaps we might manage +to go to afternoon church at Sennen, or St. Sennen's, which we knew +by report, as the long-deceased father of a family we were acquainted +with had been curate there early in the century, and we had promised +faithfully "just to go and look at the old place." + +But one can keep Sunday sometimes even outside church-doors. I shall +never forget the Sabbatic peace of that day; those lonely and lovely +roads, first rich with the big trees and plentiful vegetation about +Penzance, then gradually growing barer and barer as we drove along the +high promontory which forms the extreme point westward of our island. +The way along which so many tourist-laden vehicles pass daily was +now all solitary; we scarcely saw a soul, except perhaps a labourer +leaning over a gate in his decent Sunday clothes, or two or three +children trotting to school or church, with their books under their +arms. Unquestionably Cornwall is a respectable, sober-minded county; +religious-minded too, whether Methodist, Quaker, or other nonconformist +sects, of which there are a good many, or decent, conservative Church +of England. + +We passed St. Buryan's--a curious old church founded on the place where +an Irishwoman, Saint Buriana, is said to have made her hermitage. A +few stray cottages comprised the whole village. There was nothing +special to see, except to drink in the general atmosphere of peace and +sunshine and solitude, till we came to Treryn, the nearest point to the +celebrated Logan or rocking-stone. + +From childhood we had read about it; the most remarkable specimen in +England of those very remarkable stones, whether natural or artificial, +who can decide? + + "Which the touch of a finger alone sets moving, + But all earth's powers cannot shake from their base." + +Not quite true, this; since in 1824 a rash and foolish Lieutenant +Goldsmith (let his name be gibbeted for ever!) did come with a boat's +crew, and by main force remove the Logan a few inches from the point +on which it rests. Indignant justice very properly compelled him, at +great labour and pains, to put it back again, but it has never rocked +properly since. + +By Charles's advice we took a guide, a solemn-looking youth, who +stalked silently ahead of us along the "hedges," which, as at the +Lizard, furnished the regular path across the fields coastwards. +Soon the gleaming circle of sea again flashed upon us, from behind a +labyrinth of rocks, whence we met a couple of tourists returning. + +"You'll find it a pretty stiff climb to the Logan, ladies," said one of +them in answer to a question. + +And so we should have done, indeed, had not our guide's hand been +much readier than his tongue. I, at least, should never have got even +so far as that little rock-nest where I located myself--a somewhat +anxious-minded old hen--and watched my chickens climb triumphantly that +enormous mass of stone which we understood to be the Logan. + +"Now, watch it rock!" they shouted across the dead stillness, the +lovely solitude of sky and sea. And I suppose it did rock, but must +honestly confess _I_ could not see it stir a single inch. + +However, it was a big stone, a very big stone, and the stones +around it were equally huge and most picturesquely thrown together. +Also--delightful to my young folks!--they furnished the most +adventurous scramble that heart could desire. I alone felt a certain +relief when we were all again on smooth ground, with no legs or arms +broken. + +The cliff-walk between the Logan and the Land's End is said to be one +of the finest in England for coast scenery. Treryn or Treen Dinas, +Pardeneck Point, and Tol Pedn Penwith had been named as places we ought +to see, but this was impracticable. We had to content ourselves with a +dull inland road, across a country gradually getting more barren and +ugly, till we found ourselves suddenly at what seemed the back-yard of +a village public-house, where two or three lounging stable-men came +forward to the carriage, and Charles jumped down from his box. + +"You can get out now, ladies. This is the Land's End." + +"Oh!" + +I forbear to translate the world of meaning implied in that brief +exclamation. + +"Let us go in and get something. Perhaps we shall admire the place more +when we have ceased to be hungry." + +The words of wisdom were listened to; and we spent our first quarter of +an hour at the Land's End in attacking a skeleton "remain" of not too +daintily-cooked beef, and a cavernous cheese, in a tiny back parlour +of the--let me give it its right name--First and Last Inn, of Great +Britain. + +"We never provide for Sunday," said the waitress, responding to a +sympathetic question on the difficulty it must be to get food here. +"It's very seldom any tourists come on a Sunday." + +At which we felt altogether humbled; but in a few minutes more our +contrition passed into sovereign content. + +We went out of doors, upon the narrow green plateau in front of the +house, and then we recognised where we were--standing at the extreme +end of a peninsula, with a long line of rocks running out still further +into the sea. That "great and wide sea, wherein are moving things +innumerable," the mysterious sea "kept in the hollow of His hand," who +is Infinity, and looking at which, in the intense solitude and silence, +one seems dimly to guess at what Infinity may be. Any one who wishes to +go to church for once in the Great Temple which His hands have builded, +should spend a Sunday at the Land's End. + +At first, our thought had been, What in the world shall we do here for +two mortal hours! Now, we wished we had had two whole days. A sunset, a +sunrise, a star-lit night, what would they not have been in this grand +lonely place--almost as lonely as a ship at sea? It would be next best +to finding ourselves in the middle of the Atlantic. + +But this bliss could not be; so we proceeded to make the best of what +we had. The bright day was darkening, and a soft greyness began to +creep over land and sea. No, not soft, that is the very last adjective +applicable to the Land's End. Even on that calm day there was a fresh +wind--there must be always wind--and the air felt sharper and more salt +than any sea-air I ever knew. Stimulating too, so that one's nerves +were strung to the highest pitch of excitement. We felt able to do +anything, without fear and without fatigue. So that when a guide came +forward--a regular man-of-war's-man he looked--we at once resolved to +adventure along the line of rocks, seaward, "out as far as anybody was +accustomed to go." + +"Ay, ay; I'll take you, ladies. That is--the young ladies might go--but +you--" eying me over with his keen sailor's glance, full of honesty and +good humour, "you're pretty well on in years, ma'am." + +Laughing, I told him how far on, but that I was able to do a good deal +yet. He laughed too. + +"Oh, I've taken ladies much older than you. One the other day was +nearly seventy. So we'll do our best, ma'am. Come along." + +He offered a rugged, brown hand, as firm and steady as a mast, to hold +by, and nothing could exceed the care and kindliness with which he +guided every step of every one of us, along that perilous path, that +is, perilous except for cautious feet and steady heads. + +"Take care, young ladies. If you make one false step, you are done +for," said our guide, composedly as he pointed to the boiling whirl of +waters below. + +[Illustration: THE LAND'S END AND THE LOGAN ROCK.] + +Still, though a narrow and giddy path, there was a path, and the +exploit, though a little risky, was not fool-hardy. We should have +been bitterly sorry not to have done it--not to have stood for one +grand ten minutes, where in all our lives we may never stand again, at +the farthest point where footing is possible, gazing out upon that +magnificent circle of sea which sweeps over the submerged "land of +Lyonesse," far, far away, into the wide Atlantic. + +There were just two people standing with us, clergymen evidently, and +one, the guide told us, was "the parson at St. Sennen." We spoke to +him, as people do speak, instinctively, when mutually watching such a +scene, and by and by we mentioned the name of the long-dead curate of +St. Sennen's. + +The "parson" caught instantly at the name. + +"Mr. ----? Oh, yes, my father knew him quite well. He used constantly +to walk across from Sennen to our house, and take us children long +rambles across the cliffs, with a volume of Southey or Wordsworth under +his arm. He was a fine young fellow in those days, I have heard, and an +excellent clergyman. And he afterwards married a very nice girl from +the north somewhere." + +"Yes;" we smiled. The "nice girl" was now a sweet silver-haired little +lady of nearly eighty; the "fine young fellow" had long since departed; +and the boy was this grave middle-aged gentleman, who remembered both +as a tradition of his youth. What a sermon it all preached, beside this +eternal rock, this ever-moving, never-changing sea! + +But time was passing--how fast it does pass, minutes, ay, and years! We +bade adieu to our known unknown friend, and turned our feet backwards, +cautiously as ever, stopping at intervals to listen to the gossip of +our guide. + +"Yes, ladies, that's the spot--you may see the hoof-mark--where General +Armstrong's horse fell over; he just slipped off in time, but the poor +beast was drowned. And here, over that rock, happened the most curious +thing. I wouldn't have believed it myself, only I knew a man that saw +it with his own eyes. Once a bullock fell off into the pool below +there--just look, ladies." (We did look, into a perfect Maëlstrom of +boiling waves.) "Everybody thought he was drowned, till he was seen +swimming about unhurt. They fished him up, and exhibited him as a +curiosity." + +And again, pointing to a rock far out in the sea. + +"That's the Brisons. Thirty years ago a ship went to pieces there, and +the captain and his wife managed to climb on to that rock. They held +on there for two days and a night, before a boat could get at them. +At last they were taken off one at a time, with rockets and a rope; +the wife first. But the rope slipped and she fell into the water. She +was pulled out in a minute or so, and rowed ashore, but they durst +not tell her husband she was drowned. I was standing on the beach at +Whitesand Bay when the boat came in. I was only a lad, but I remember +it well, and her too lifted out all dripping and quite dead. She was +such a fine woman." + +"And the captain?" + +"They went back for him, and got him off safe, telling him nothing. But +when he found she was dead he went crazy-like--kept for ever saying, +'She saved my life, she saved my life,' till he was taken away by his +friends. Look out, ma'am, mind your footing; just here a lady slipped +and broke her leg a week ago. I had to carry her all the way to the +hotel. I shouldn't like to carry you." + +We all smiled at the comical candour of the honest sailor, who +proceeded to give us bits of his autobiography. He was Cornish born, +but had seen a deal of the world as an A.B. on board her Majesty's ship +_Agamemnon_. + +"Of course you have heard of the _Agamemnon_, ma'am. I was in her off +Balaklava. You remember the Crimean war?" + +Yes, I did. His eyes brightened as we discussed names and places once +so familiar, belonging to that time, which now seems so far back as to +be almost historical. + +"Then you know what a winter we had, and what a summer afterwards. I +came home invalided, and didn't attempt the service afterwards; but I +never thought I should come home at all. Yes, it's a fine place the +Land's End, though the air is so strong that it kills some folks right +off. Once an invalid gentleman came, and he was dead in a fortnight. +But I'm not dead yet, and I stop here mostly all the year round." + +He sniffed the salt air and smiled all over his weather-beaten +face--keen, bronzed, blue-eyed, like one of the old Vikings. He was a +fine specimen of a true British tar. When, having seen all we could, we +gave him his small honorarium, he accepted it gratefully, and insisted +on our taking in return a memento of the place in the shape of a stone +weighing about two pounds, glittering with ore, and doubtless valuable, +but ponderous. Oh, the trouble it gave me to carry it home, and pack +and unpack it among my small luggage! But I did bring it home, and +I keep it still in remembrance of the Land's End, and of the honest +sailor of H.M.S. _Agamemnon_. + +So all was over. We could dream of an unknown Land's End no more. It +became now a real place, of which the reality, though different from +the imagination, was at least no disappointment. How few people in +attaining a life-long desire can say as much! + +Our only regret, an endurable one now, was that we had not carried out +our original plan of staying some days there--tourist-haunted, troubled +days they might have been, but the evenings and mornings would have +been glorious. With somewhat heavy hearts we summoned Charles and the +carriage, for already a misty drift of rain began sweeping over the sea. + +"Still, we must see Whitesand Bay," said one of us, recalling a story +a friend had once told how, staying at Land's End, she crossed the bay +alone in a blinding storm, took refuge at the coastguard station, where +she was hospitably received, and piloted back with most chivalric care +by a coastguard, who did not tell her till their journey's end that he +had left at home a wife, and a baby just an hour old. + +No such romantic adventure befell us. We only caught a glimmer of the +bay through drizzling rain, which by the time we reached Sennen village +had become a regular downpour. Evidently, we could do no more that day, +which was fast melting into night. + +"We'll go home," was the sad resolve, glad nevertheless that we had a +comfortable "home" to go to. + +So closing the carriage and protecting ourselves as well as we could +from the driving rain, we went forward, passing the Quakers' burial +ground, where is said to be one of the finest views in Cornwall; the +Nine Maidens, a circle of Druidical stones, and many other interesting +things, without once looking at or thinking of them. + +Half a mile from Marazion the rain ceased, and a light like that of the +rising moon began to break through the clouds. What a night it might +be, or might have been, could we have stayed at the Land's End! + +That ghostly "might have been!" It is in great things as in small, the +worry, the torment, the paralysing burden of life. Away with it! We +have done our best to be happy, and we have been happy. We have seen +the Land's End. + + + + +DAY THE TWELFTH + + +Monday morning. Black Monday we were half inclined to call it, knowing +that by the week's end our travels must be over and done, and that if +we wished still to see all we had planned, we must inevitably next +morning return to civilisation and railways, a determination which +involved taking this night "a long, a last farewell" of our comfortable +carriage and our faithful Charles. + +"But it needn't be until night," said he, evidently loth to part from +his ladies. "If I get back to Falmouth by daylight to-morrow morning, +master will be quite satisfied. I can take you wherever you like +to-day." + +"And the horse?" + +"Oh, he shall get a good feed and a rest till the middle of the night, +then he'll do well enough. We shall have the old moon after one o'clock +to get home by. Between Penzance and Falmouth it's a good road, though +rather lonely." + +I should think it was, in the "wee hours" by the dim light of a waning +moon. But Charles seemed to care nothing about it, so we said no more, +but decided to take the drive--our last drive. + +Our minds were perplexed between Botallack Mine, the Gurnard's Head, +Lamorna Cove, and several other places, which we were told we must on +no account miss seeing, the first especially. Some of us, blessed with +scientific relatives, almost dreaded returning home without having seen +a single Cornish mine; others, lovers of scenery, longed for more of +that magnificent coast. But finally, a meek little voice carried the +day. + +[Illustration: SENNEN COVE. WAITING FOR THE BOATS.] + +"I was so disappointed--more than I liked to say--when it rained, +and I couldn't get my shells for our bazaar. How shall I ever get them +now? If it wouldn't trouble anybody very much, mightn't we go again to +Whitesand Bay?" + +A plan not wholly without charm. It was a heavenly day; to spend it +in delicious idleness on that wide sweep of sunshiny sand would be a +rest for the next day's fatigue. Besides, consolatory thought! there +would be no temptation to put on miners' clothes, and go dangling in +a basket down to the heart of the earth, as the Princess of Wales was +reported to have done. The pursuit of knowledge may be delightful, but +some of us owned to a secret preference for _terra firma_ and the upper +air. We resolved to face opprobrium, and declare boldly we had "no +time" (needless to add no inclination) to go and see Botallack Mine. +The Gurnard's Head cost us a pang to miss; but then we should catch a +second view of the Land's End. Yes, we would go to Whitesand Bay. + +It was a far shorter journey in sunshine than in rain, even though we +made various divergencies for blackberries and other pleasures. Never +had the sky looked bluer or the sea brighter, and much we wished that +we could have wandered on in dreamy peace, day after day, or even gone +through England, gipsy-fashion, in a house upon wheels, which always +seemed to me the very ideal of travelling. + +We reached Sennen only too soon. Pretty little Sennen, with its ancient +church and its new school house, where the civil schoolmaster gave me +some ink to write a post-card for those to whom even the post-mark +"Sennen" would have a touching interest, and where the boys and girls, +released for dinner, were running about. Board school pupils, no doubt, +weighted with an amount of learning which would have been appalling +to their grandfathers and grandmothers, the simple parishioners of +the "fine young fellow" half a century ago. As we passed through the +village with its pretty cottages and "Lodgings to Let," we could not +help thinking what a delightful holiday resort this would be for +a large small family, who could be turned out as we were when the +carriage could no farther go, on the wide sweep of green common, +gradually melting into silvery sand, so fine and soft that it was +almost a pleasure to tumble down the slopes, and get up again, shaking +yourself like a dog, without any sense of dirt or discomfort. What a +paradise for children, who might burrow like rabbits and wriggle about +like sand-eels, and never come to any harm! + +Without thought of any danger, we began selecting our bathing-place, +shallow enough, with long strips of wet shimmering sand to be crossed +before reaching even the tiniest waves; when one of us, the cautious +one, appealed to an old woman, the only human being in sight. + +"Bathe?" she said. "Folks ne'er bathe here. 'Tain't safe." + +"Why not? Quicksands?" + +She nodded her head. Whether she understood us or not, or whether we +quite understood her, I am not sure, and should be sorry to libel such +a splendid bathing ground--apparently. But maternal wisdom interposed, +and the girls yielded. When, half an hour afterwards, we saw a solitary +figure moving on a distant ledge of rock, and a black dot, doubtless +a human head, swimming or bobbing about in the sea beneath--maternal +wisdom was reproached as arrant cowardice. But the sand was delicious, +the sea-wind so fresh, and the sea so bright, that disappointment could +not last. We made an encampment of our various impedimenta, stretched +ourselves out, and began the search for shells, in which every +arm's-length involved a mine of wealth and beauty. + +Never except at one place, on the estuary of the Mersey, have I +seen a beach made up of shells so lovely in colour and shape; very +minute; some being no bigger than a grain of rice or a pin's head. The +collecting of them was a fascination. We forgot all the historical +interests that ought to have moved us, saw neither Athelstan, King +Stephen, King John, nor Perkin Warbeck, each of whom is said to have +landed here--what were they to a tiny shell, like that moralised over +by Tennyson in "Maud"--"small, but a work divine"? I think infinite +greatness sometimes touches one less than infinite littleness--the +exceeding tenderness of Nature, or the Spirit which is behind Nature, +who can fashion with equal perfectness a starry hemisphere and a +glow-worm; an ocean and a little pink shell. The only imperfection in +creation seems--oh, strange mystery!--to be man. Why? + +But away with moralising, or dreaming, though this was just a day for +dreaming, clear, bright, warm, with not a sound except the murmur +of the low waves, running in an enormous length--curling over and +breaking on the soft sands. Everything was so heavenly calm, it seemed +impossible to believe in that terrible scene when the captain and his +wife were seen clinging to the Brisons rock, just ahead. + +Doubtless our friend of the _Agamemnon_ was telling this and all +his other stories to an admiring circle of tourists, for we saw the +Land's End covered with a moving swarm like black flies. How thankful +we felt that we had "done" it on a Sunday! Still, we were pleased +to have another gaze at it, with its line of picturesque rocks, the +Armed Knight and the Irish Lady--though, I confess, I never could make +out which was the knight and which was the lady. Can it be that some +fragment of the legend of Tristram and Iseult originated these names? + +After several sweet lazy hours, we went through a "fish-cellar," a +little group of cottages, and climbed a headland, to take our veritable +farewell of the Land's End, and then decided to go home. We had rolled +or thrown our provision basket, rugs, &c., down the sandy slope, but it +was another thing to carry them up again. I went in quest of a small +boy, and there presented himself a big man, coastguard, as the only +unemployed hand in the place, who apologised with such a magnificent +air for not having "cleaned" himself, that I almost blushed to ask +him to do such a menial service as to carry a bundle of wraps. But +he accepted it, conversing amiably as we went, and giving me a most +graphic picture of life at Sennen during the winter. When he left me, +making a short cut to our encampment--a black dot on the sands, with +two moving black dots near it--a fisher wife joined me, and of her own +accord began a conversation. + +She and I fraternised at once, chiefly on the subject of children, a +group of whom were descending the road from Sennen School. She told me +how many of them were hers, and what prizes they had gained, and what +hard work it was. She could neither read nor write, she said, but she +liked her children to be good scholars, and they learnt a deal up at +Sennen. + +Apparently they did, and something else besides learning, for when I +had parted from my loquacious friend, I came up to the group just in +time to prevent a stand-up fight between two small mites, the _casus +belli_ of which I could no more arrive at, than a great many wiser +people can discover the origin of national wars. So I thought the +strong hand of "intervention"--civilised intervention--was best, and +put an end to it, administering first a good scolding, and then a coin. +The division of this coin among the little party compelled an extempore +sum in arithmetic, which I required them to do (for the excellent +reason that I couldn't do it myself!)--and they did it! Therefore I +conclude that the heads of the Sennen school-children are as solid as +their fists, and equally good for use. + +[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO ST. NIGHTON'S KEEVE.] + +Simple little community! which as the fisher wife told me, only goes to +Penzance about once a year, and is, as yet, innocent of tourists, for +the swarm at the Land's End seldom goes near Whitesand Bay. Existence +here must be very much that of an oyster,--but perhaps oysters are +happy. + +By the time we reached Penzance the lovely day was dying into an +equally lovely evening. St. Michael's Mount shone in the setting sun. +It was high water, the bay was all alive with boats, and there was +quite a little crowd of people gathered at the mild little station of +Marazion. What could be happening? + +A princess was expected, that young half-English, half-foreign +princess, in whose romantic story the British public has taken such an +interest, sympathising with the motherly kindness of our good Queen, +with the wedding at Windsor, and the sad little infant funeral there, +a year after. The Princess Frederica of Hanover, and the Baron Von +Pawel-Rammingen, her father's secretary, who, like a stout mediæval +knight, had loved, wooed, and married her, were coming to St. Michael's +Mount on a visit to the St. Aubyns. + +Marazion had evidently roused itself, and risen to the occasion. Half +the town must have turned out to the beach, and the other half secured +every available boat, in which it followed, at respectful distance, +the two boats, one full of luggage, the other of human beings, which +were supposed to be the royal party. People speculated with earnest +curiosity, which was the princess, and which her husband, and what the +St. Aubyns would do with them; whether they would be taken to see the +Land's End, and whether they would go there as ordinary tourists, or in +a grand visit of state. How hard it is that royal folk can never see +anything except in state, or in a certain adventitious garb, beautiful, +no doubt, but satisfactorily hiding the real thing. How they must long +sometimes for a walk, after the fashion of Haroun Alraschid, up and +down Regent Street and Oxford Street! or an incognito foreign tour, or +even a solitary country walk, without a "lady-in-waiting." + +We had no opera-glass to add to the many levelled at those two boats, +so we went in--hoping host and guests would spend a pleasant evening in +the lovely old rooms we knew. We spent ours in rest, and in arranging +for to-morrow's flight. Also in consulting with our kindly landlady +as to a possible house at Marazion for some friends whom the winter +might drive southwards, like the swallows, to a climate which, in this +one little bay shut out from east and north, is--they told us--during +all the cruel months which to many of us means only enduring life, not +living--as mild and equable almost as the Mediterranean shores. And +finally, we settled all with our faithful Charles, who looked quite +mournful at parting with his ladies. + +"Yes, it is rather a long drive, and pretty lonely," said he. "But I'll +wait till the moons up, and that'll help us. We'll get into Falmouth +by daylight. I've got to do the same thing often enough through the +summer, so I don't mind it." + +Thus said the good fellow, putting a cheery face on it, then with a +hasty "Good-bye, ladies," he rushed away. But we had taken his address, +not meaning to lose sight of him. (Nor have we done so up to this date +of writing; and the fidelity has been equal on both sides.) + +Then, in the midst of a peal of bells which was kept up unweariedly +till 10 P.M.--evidently Marazion is not blessed with the sight +of a princess every day--we closed our eyes upon all outward things, +and went away to the Land of Nod. + + + + +DAY THE THIRTEENTH + + +Into King Arthurs land--Tintagel his birth-place, and Camelford, +where he fought his last battle--the legendary region of which one +may believe as much or as little as one pleases--we were going +to-day. With the good common sense which we flattered ourselves had +accompanied every step of our unsentimental journey, we had arranged +all before-hand, ordered a carriage to meet the mail train, and hoped +to find at Tintagel--not King Uther Pendragon, King Arthur or King +Mark, but a highly respectable landlord, who promised us a welcome at +an inn--which we only trusted would be as warm and as kindly as that we +left behind us at Marazion. + +The line of railway which goes to the far west of England is one of the +prettiest in the kingdom on a fine day, which we were again blessed +with. It had been a wet summer, we heard, throughout Cornwall, but +in all our journey, save that one wild storm at the Lizard, sunshine +scarcely ever failed us. Now--whether catching glimpses of St. Ives +Bay or sweeping through the mining district of Redruth, and the wooded +country near Truro, Grampound, and St. Austell, till we again saw the +glittering sea on the other side of Cornwall--all was brightness. Then +darting inland once more, our iron horse carried us past Lostwithiel, +the little town which once boasted Joseph Addison, M.P., as its +representative; gave us a fleeting vision of Ristormel, one of the +ancient castles of Cornwall, and on through a leafy land, beginning to +change from rich green to the still richer yellows and reds of autumn, +till we stopped at Bodmin Road. + +[Illustration: TINTAGEL.] + +No difficulty in finding our carriage, for it was the only one there; +a huge vehicle, of ancient build, the horses to match, capable of +accommodating a whole family and its luggage. We missed our compact +little machine, and our brisk, kindly Charles, but soon settled +ourselves in dignified, roomy state, for the twenty miles, or rather +more, which lay between us and the coast. Our way ran along lonely +quiet country roads and woods almost as green as when Queen Guinevere +rode through them "a maying," before the dark days of her sin and King +Arthur's death. + +Here it occurs to me, as it did this day to a practical youthful mind, +"What in the world do people know about King Arthur?" + +Well, most people have read Tennyson, and a few are acquainted with +the "Morte d'Arthur" of Sir Thomas Malory. But, perhaps I had better +briefly give the story, or as much of it as is necessary for the +edification of outsiders. + +Uther Pendragon, King of Britain, falling in love with Ygrayne, wife of +the duke of Cornwall, besieged them in their twin castles of Tintagel +and Terrabil, slew the husband, and the same day married the wife. Unto +whom a boy was born, and by advice of the enchanter Merlin, carried +away, from the sea-shore beneath Tintagel, and confided to a good +knight, Sir Ector, to be brought up as his own son, and christened +Arthur. On the death of the king, Merlin produced the youth, who was +recognized by his mother Ygrayne, and proclaimed king in the stead +of Uther Pendragon. He instituted the Order of Knights of the Round +Table, who were to go everywhere, punishing vice and rescuing oppressed +virtue, for the love of God and of some noble lady. He married +Guinevere, daughter of King Leodegrance, who forsook him for the love +of Sir Launcelot, his bravest knight and dearest friend. One by one, +his best knights fell away into sin, and his nephew Mordred raised a +rebellion, fought with him, and conquered him at Camelford. Seeing his +end was near, Arthur bade his last faithful knight, Sir Bedevere, carry +him to the shore of a mere (supposed to be Dozmare Pool) and throw in +there his sword Excalibur; when appeared a boat with three queens, +who lifted him in, mourning over him. With them he sailed away across +the mere, to be healed of his grievous wound. Some say that he was +afterwards buried in a chapel near, others declare that he lives still +in fairy land, and will reappear in latter days, to reinstate the Order +of Knights of the Round Table, and rule his beloved England, which will +then be perfect as he once tried to make it, but in vain. + +Camelford of to-day is certainly not the Camelot of King Arthur--but +a very respectable, commonplace little town, much like other country +towns; the same genteel linendrapers' and un-genteel ironmongers' +shops; the same old-established commercial inn, and a few ugly, but +solid-looking private houses, with their faces to the street and +their backs nestled in gardens and fields. Some of the inhabitants of +these said houses were to be seen taking a quiet afternoon stroll. +Doubtless they are eminently respectable and worthy folk, leading a +mild provincial life like the people in Miss Martineau's _Deerbrook_, +or Miss Austen's _Pride and Prejudice_--of which latter quality they +have probably a good share. + +We let our horses rest, but we ourselves felt not the slightest wish to +rest at Camelford, so walked leisurely on till we came to the little +river Camel, and to Slaughter Bridge, said to be the point where King +Arthur's army was routed and where he received his death-wound. A +slab of stone, some little distance up the stream, is still called +"King Arthur's Tomb." But as his coffin is preserved, as well as his +Round Table, at Winchester; where, according to mediæval tradition, +the bodies of both Arthur and Guinevere were found, and the head +of Guinevere had yellow hair; also that near the little village of +Davidstow, is a long barrow, having in the centre a mound, which is +called "King Arthur's grave"--inquiring minds have plenty of "facts" to +choose from. Possibly at last they had better resort to fiction, and +believe in Arthur's disappearance, as Tennyson makes him say, + + "To the island-valley of Avillion ... + Where I may heal me of my grievous wound." + +Dozmare Pool we found so far out of our route that we had to make a +virtue of necessity, and imagine it all; the melancholy moorland lake, +with the bleak hill above it, and stray glimpses of the sea beyond. +A ghostly spot, and full of many ghostly stories besides the legend +of Arthur. Here Tregeagle, the great demon of Cornwall, once had his +dwelling, until, selling his soul to the devil, his home was sunk to +the bottom of the mere, and himself is heard of stormy nights, wailing +round it with other ghost-demons, in which the Cornish mind still +lingeringly believes. Visionary packs of hounds; a shadowy coach and +horses, which drives round and round the pool, and then drives into it; +flitting lights, kindled by no human hand, in places where no human +foot could go--all these tales are still told by the country folk, and +we might have heard them all. Might also have seen, in fancy, the flash +of the "brand Excalibur"; heard the wailing song of the three queens; +and pictured the dying Arthur lying on the lap of his sister Morgane la +Faye. But, I forgot, this is an un-sentimental journey. + +The Delabole quarries are as un-sentimental a place as one could +desire. It was very curious to come suddenly upon this world of slate, +piled up in enormous masses on either side the road, and beyond them +hills of debris, centuries old--for the mines have been worked ever +since the time of Queen Elizabeth. Houses, walls, gates, fences, +everything that can possibly be made of slate, is made. No green or +other colour tempers the all-pervading shade of bluish-grey, for +vegetation in the immediate vicinity of the quarries is abolished, +the result of which would be rather dreary, save for the cheerful +atmosphere of wholesome labour, the noise of waggons, horses, +steam-engines--such a contrast to the silence of the deserted tin-mines. + +But, these Delabole quarries passed, silence and solitude come back +again. Even the yearly-increasing influx of tourists fails to make +the little village of Trevena anything but a village, where the +said tourists lounge about in the one street, if it can be called a +street, between the two inns and the often-painted, picturesque old +post-office. Everything looked so simple, so home-like, that we were +amused to find we had to get ready for a _table d'hôte_ dinner, in +the only available eating room where the one indefatigable waitress, +a comely Cornish girl, who seemed Argus and Briareus rolled into one, +served us--a party small enough to make conversation general, and +pleasant and intelligent enough to make it very agreeable, which does +not always happen at an English hotel. + +Then we sallied out to find the lane which leads to Tintagel Castle, +or Castles--for one sits in the sea, the other on the opposite heights +in the mainland, with power of communicating by the narrow causeway +which now at least exists between the rock and the shore. This seems to +confirm the legend, how the luckless husband of Ygrayne shut up himself +and his wife in two castles, he being slain in the one, and she married +to the victorious King Uther Pendragon, in the other. + +Both looked so steep and dangerous in the fast-coming twilight that we +thought it best to attempt neither, so contented ourselves with a walk +on the cliffs and the smooth green field which led thither. Leaning +against a gate, we stood and watched one of the grandest out of the +many grand sunsets which had blessed us in Cornwall. The black rock of +Tintagel filled the foreground; beyond, the eye saw nothing but sea, +the sea which covers vanished Lyonesse, until it met the sky, a clear +amber with long bars like waves, so that you could hardly tell where +sea ended and sky began. Then into it there swam slowly a long low +cloud, shaped like a boat, with a raised prow, and two or three figures +sitting at the stern. + +"King Arthur and the three queens," we declared, and really a very +moderate imagination could have fancied it this. "But what is that long +black thing at the bow?" + +"Oh," observed drily the most practical of the three, "it's King +Arthur's luggage." + +Sentiment could survive no more. We fell into fits of laughter, and +went home to tea and bed. + + + + +DAYS FOURTEENTH, FIFTEENTH, AND SIXTEENTH-- + + +And all Arthurian days, so I will condense them into one chapter, and +not spin out the hours that were flying so fast. Yet we hardly wished +to stop them; for pleasant as travelling is, the best delight of all +is--the coming home. + +Walking, to one more of those exquisite autumn days, warm as summer, +yet with a tender brightness that hot summer never has, like the love +between two old people, out of whom all passion has died--we remembered +that we were at Tintagel, the home of Ygrayne and Arthur, of King Mark +and Tristram and Iseult. I had to tell that story to my girls in the +briefest form, how King Mark sent his nephew, Sir Tristram, to fetch +home Iseult of Ireland for his queen, and on the voyage Bragswaine, +her handmaiden, gave each a love-potion, which caused the usual fatal +result; how at last Tristram fled from Tintagel into Brittany, where +he married another Iseult "of the white hands," and lived peacefully, +till, stricken by death, his fancy went back to his old love, whom he +implored to come to him. She came, and found him dead. A tale--of which +the only redeeming point is the innocence, simplicity, and dignity of +the second Iseult, the unloved Breton wife, to whom none of our modern +poets who have sung or travestied the wild, passionate, miserable, ugly +story, have ever done full justice. + +These sinful lovers, the much-wronged but brutal King Mark, the +scarcely less brutal Uther Pendragon, and hapless Ygrayne--what a +curious condition of morals and manners the Arthurian legends unfold! +A time when might was right; when every one seized what he wanted just +because he wanted it, and kept it, if he could, till a stronger hand +wrenched it from him. That in such a state of society there should +ever have arisen the dimmest dream of a man like Arthur--not perhaps +Tennyson's Arthur, the "blameless king," but even Sir Thomas Malory's, +founded on mere tradition--is a remarkable thing. Clear through all +the mists of ages shines that ideal of knighthood, enjoining courage, +honour, faith, chastity, the worship of God and the service of men. +Also, in the very highest degree, inculcating that chivalrous love of +woman--not women--which barbaric nations never knew. As we looked at +that hoar ruin sitting solitary in the sunny sea, and thought of the +days when it was a complete fortress, inclosing a mass of human beings, +all with human joys, sorrows, passions, crimes--things that must have +existed in essence, however legend has exaggerated or altered them--we +could not but feel that the mere possibility of a King Arthur shining +down the dim vista of long-past centuries, is something to prove that +goodness, like light, has an existence as indestructible as Him from +whom it comes. + +We looked at Tintagel with its risky rock-path. "It will be a hot +climb, and our bathing days are numbered. Let us go in the opposite +direction to Bossinney Cove." + +Practicality when weighed against Poetry is poor--Poetry always kicks +the beam. We went to Bossinney. + +Yet what a pretty cove it was! and how pleasant! While waiting for +the tide to cover the little strip of sand, we re-mounted the winding +path, and settled ourselves like seabirds on the furthermost point of +rock, whence, just by extending a hand, we could have dropped anything, +ourselves even, into a sheer abyss of boiling waves, dizzy to look down +into, and yet delicious. + +So was the bath, though a little gloomy, for the sun could barely reach +the shut-in cove; and we were interfered with considerably by--not +tourists--but a line of donkeys! They were seen solemnly descending the +narrow cliff-path one by one--eleven in all--each with an empty sack +over his shoulder. Lastly came a very old man, who, without taking the +least notice of us, disposed himself to fill these sacks with sand. +One after the other the eleven meek animals came forward and submitted +each to his load, which proceeding occupied a good hour and a half. +I hardly know which was the most patient, the old man or his donkeys. + +[Illustration: CRESWICK'S MILL IN THE ROCKY VALLEY.] + +We began some of us to talk to his beasts, and others to himself. "Yes, +it was hard work," he said, "but he managed to come down to the cove +three times a day. And the asses were good asses. They all had their +names; Lucy, Cherry, Sammy, Tom, Jack, Ned;" each animal pricked up its +long ears and turned round its quiet eyes when called. Some were young +and some old, but all were very sure-footed, which was necessary here. +"The weight some of 'em would carry was wonderful." + +The old man seemed proud of the creatures, and kind to them too in a +sort of way. He had been a fisherman, he said, but now was too old for +that; so got his living by collecting sand. + +"It makes capital garden-paths, this sand. I'd be glad to bring you +some, ladies," said he, evidently with an eye to business. When we +explained that this was impracticable, unless he would come all the way +to London, he merely said, "Oh," and accepted the disappointment. Then +bidding us a civil "Good day," he disappeared with his laden train. + +Poor old fellow! Nothing of the past knightly days, nothing of the +busy existing modern present affected him, or ever would do so. He +might have been own brother, or cousin, to Wordsworth's "Leech-gatherer +on the lonely moor." Whenever we think of Bossinney Cove, we shall +certainly think of that mild old man and his eleven donkeys. + +The day was hot, and it had been a steep climb; we decided to drive in +the afternoon, "for a rest," to Boscastle. + +Artists and tourists haunt this picturesque nook. A village built at +the end of a deep narrow creek, which runs far inland, and is a safe +shelter for vessels of considerable size. On either side is a high +footpath, leading to two headlands, from both of which the views of +sea and coast are very fine. And there are relics of antiquity and +legends thereto belonging--a green mound, all that remains of Bottrieux +Castle; and Ferrabury Church, with its silent tower. A peal of bells +had been brought, and the ship which carried them had nearly reached +the cove, when the pilot, bidding the captain "thank God for his safe +voyage," was answered that he "thanked only himself and a fair wind." +Immediately a storm arose; and the ship went down with every soul on +board--except the pilot. So the church tower is mute--but on winter +nights the lost bells are still heard, sounding mournfully from the +depths of the sea. + +As we sat, watching with a vague fascination the spouting, minute by +minute, of a "blow-hole," almost as fine as the Kynance post-office--we +moralised on the story of the bells, and on the strange notions people +have, even in these days, of Divine punishments; imputing to the +Almighty Father all their own narrow jealousies and petty revenges, +dragging down God into the likeness of men, such an one as themselves, +instead of striving to lift man into the image of God. + +Meantime the young folks rambled and scrambled--watched with anxious +and even envious eyes--for it takes one years to get entirely +reconciled to the quiescence of the down-hill journey. And then we +drove slowly back--just in time for another grand sunset, with Tintagel +black in the foreground, until it and all else melted into darkness, +and there was nothing left but to + + "Watch the twilight stars come out + Above the lonely sea." + +Next morning we must climb Tintagel, for it would be our last day. + +And what a heavenly day it was! How softly the waves crept in upon the +beach--just as they might have done when they laid at Merlin's feet +"the little naked child," disowned of man but dear to Heaven, who was +to grow up into the "stainless king." + +He and his knights--the "shadowy people of the realm of dream,"--were +all about us, as, guided by a rheumatic old woman, who climbed feebly +up the stair, where generations of ghostly feet must have ascended and +descended, we reached a bastion and gateway, quite pre-historic. Other +ruins apparently belong to the eleventh or twelfth centuries. But to +this there is no clue. It may have been the very landing-place of King +Uther or King Mark, or other Cornish heroes, who held this wonderful +natural-artificial fortress in the dim days of old romance. + +"Here are King Arthur's cups and saucers," said the old woman, pausing +in the midst of a long lament over her own ailments, to point out some +holes in the slate rock. "And up there you'll find the chapel. It's an +easy climb--if you mind the path--just where it passes the spring." + +[Illustration: BOSCASTLE.] + +That spring, trickling down from the very top of the rock, and making +a verdant space all round it--what a treasure it must have been to the +unknown inhabitants who, centuries ago, entrenched themselves here--for +offence or defence--against the main-land. Peacefully it flowed on +still, with the little ferns growing, and the sheep nibbling beside +it. We idle tourists alone occupied that solitary height where those +long-past warlike races--one succeeding the other--lived and loved, +fought and died. + +The chapel--where the high altar and a little burial-ground beside it +can still be traced--is clearly much later than Arthur's time. However, +there are so few data to go upon, and the action of sea-storms destroys +so much every year, that even to the learned archæologist, Tintagel is +a great mystery, out of which the imaginative mind may evolve almost +anything it likes. + +We sat a long time on the top of the rock--realising only the one +obvious fact that our eyes were gazing on precisely the same scene, +seawards and coastwards, that all these long-dead eyes were accustomed +to behold. Beaten by winds and waves till the grey of its slate +formation is nearly black; worn into holes by the constant action of +the tide which widens yearly the space between it and the main-land, +and gnaws the rock below into dangerous hollows that in time become +sea-caves, Tintagel still remains--and one marvels that so much of it +does still remain--a landmark of the cloudy time between legend and +actual history. + +Whether the ruin on the opposite height was once a portion of +Tintagel Castle, before the sea divided it, making a promontory into +an island--or whether it was the Castle Terrabil, in which Gorlois, +Ygrayne's husband, was slain--no one now can say. That both the twin +fortresses were habitable till Elizabeth's time, there is evidence to +prove. But since then they have been left to decay, to the silent sheep +and the screeching ravens, including doubtless that ghostly chough, in +whose shape the soul of King Arthur is believed still to revisit the +familiar scene. + +We did not see that notable bird--though we watched with interest two +tame and pretty specimens of its almost extinct species walking about +in a flower-garden in the village, and superstitiously cherished there. +We were told that to this day no Cornishman likes to shoot a chough +or a raven. So they live and breed in peace among the twin ruins, and +scream contentedly to the noisy stream which dances down the rocky +hollow from Trevena, and leaps into the sea at Porth Hern--the "iron +gate," over against Tintagel. Otherwise, all is solitude and silence. + +We thought we had seen everything, and come to an end, but at the hotel +we found a party who had just returned from visiting some sea-caves +beyond Tintagel, which they declared were "the finest things they had +found in Cornwall." + +It was a lovely calm day, and it was our last day. A few hours of it +alone remained. Should we use them? We might never be here again. +And, I think, the looser grows one's grasp of life, the greater is +one's longing to make the most of it, to see all we can see of this +wonderful, beautiful world. So, after a hasty meal, we found ourselves +once more down at Porth Hern, seeking a boat and man--alas! not John +Curgenven--under whose guidance we might brave the stormy deep. + +It was indeed stormy! No sooner had we rounded the rock, than the baby +waves of the tiny bay grew into hills and valleys, among which our boat +went dancing up and down like a sea-gull! + +"Ay, there's some sea on, there always is here, but we'll be through it +presently," indifferently said the elder of the two boatmen; and plied +his oars, as, I think, only these Cornish boatmen can do, talking all +the while. He pointed out a slate quarry, only accessible from the sea, +unless the workmen liked to be let down by ropes, which sometimes had +to be done. We saw them moving about like black emmets among the clefts +of the rocks, and heard plainly above the sound of the sea the click +of their hammers. Strange, lonely, perilous work it must be, even in +summer. In winter-- + +"Oh, they're used to it; we're all used to it," said our man, who was +intelligent enough, though nothing equal to John Curgenven. "Many a +time I've got sea-fowls' eggs on those rocks there," pointing to a +cliff which did not seem to hold footing for a fly. "We all do it. The +gentry buy them, and we're glad of the money. Dangerous?--yes, rather; +but one must earn one's bread, and it's not so bad when you take to it +young." + +Nevertheless, I think I shall never look at a collection of sea-birds' +eggs without a slight shudder, remembering those awful cliffs. + +"Here you are, ladies, and the sea's down a bit, as I said. Hold on, +mate, the boat will go right into the cave." + +And before we knew what was happening, we found ourselves floated out +of daylight into darkness--very dark it seemed at first--and rocking +on a mass of heaving waters, shut in between two high walls, so narrow +that it seemed as if every heave would dash us in pieces against them; +while beyond was a dense blackness, from which one heard the beat of +the everlasting waves against a sort of tunnel, a stormy sea-grave from +which no one could ever hope to come out alive. + +"I don't like this at all," said a small voice. + +"Hadn't we better get out again?" practically suggested another. + +But no sooner was this done than the third of the party longed to +return; and begged for "only five minutes" in that wonderful place, +compared to which Dolor Ugo, and the other Lizard caves, became as +nothing. They were beautiful, but this was terrible. Yet with its +terror was mingled an awful delight. "Give me but five, nay, two +minutes more!" + +"Very well, just as you choose," was the response of meek despair. +So of course, Poetry yielded. The boatmen were told to row on into +daylight and sunshine--at least as much sunshine as the gigantic +overhanging cliffs permitted. And never, never, never in this world +shall I again behold that wonderful, mysterious sea-cave. + +But like all things incomplete, resigned, or lost, it has fixed itself +on my memory with an almost painful vividness. However, I promised not +to regret--not to say another word about it; and I will not. I did see +it, for just a glimpse; and that will serve. + +Two more pictures remain, the last gorgeous sunset, which I watched in +quiet solitude, sitting on a tombstone by Tintagel church--a building +dating from Saxon times, perched on the very edge of a lofty cliff, +and with a sea-view that reaches from Trevose Head on one side to Bude +Haven on the other. Also, our last long dreamy drive; in the mild +September sunshine, across the twenty-one miles of sparsely inhabited +country which lie between Tintagel and Launceston. In the midst of +it, on the top of a high flat of moorland, our driver turned round +and pointed with his whip to a long low mound, faintly visible about +half-a-mile off. "There, ladies, that's King Arthur's grave." + +The third, at least, that we had either seen or heard of. These varied +records of the hero's last resting-place remind one of the three heads, +said to be still extant, of Oliver Cromwell, one when he was a little +boy, one as a young man, and the third as an old man. + +But after all my last and vividest recollection of King Arthur's +country is that wild sail--so wild that I wished I had taken it +alone--in the solitary boat, up and down the tossing waves in face of +Tintagel rock; the dark, iron-bound coast with its awful caves, the +bright sunshiny land, and ever-threatening sea. Just the region, in +short, which was likely to create a race like that which Arthurian +legend describes, full of passionate love and deadly hate, capable of +barbaric virtues, and equally barbaric crimes. An age in which the mere +idea of such a hero as that ideal knight + + "Who reverenced his conscience as his God: + Whose glory was redressing human wrong: + Who spake no slander, no, nor listened to it: + Who loved one only, and who clave to her--" + +rises over the blackness of darkness like a morning star. + +If Arthur could "come again"--perhaps in the person of one of the +descendants of a prince who was not unlike him, who lived and died +among us in this very nineteenth century-- + + "Wearing the white flower of a blameless life--" + +if this could be--what a blessing for Arthur's beloved England! + +[Illustration: THE OLD POST-OFFICE, TREVENA.] + + + + +L'ENVOI + + +Written more than a year after. The "old hen" and her chickens have +long been safe at home. A dense December fog creeps in everywhere, +choking and blinding, as I finish the history of those fifteen innocent +days, calm as autumn, and bright as spring, when we three took our +Unsentimental Journey together through Cornwall. Many a clever critic, +like Sir Charles Coldstream when he looked into the crater of Vesuvius, +may see "nothing in it"--a few kindly readers looking a little further, +may see a little more: probably the writer only sees the whole. + +But such as it is, let it stay--simple memorial of what Americans would +call "a good time," the sunshine of which may cast its brightness far +forward, even into that quiet time "when travelling days are done." + + +THE END. + + LONDON: + R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, + BREAD STREET HILL, E.C. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of An Unsentimental Journey through +Cornwall, by Dinah Maria Craik + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44557 *** |