CAMBRIDGE COUNTY GEOGRAPHIES

General Editor: F.H.H. Guillemard, M.A., M.D.

CORNWALL

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
London: FETTER LANE, E.C.
C.F. CLAY, Manager

Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET
Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO.
Leipzig: F.A. BROCKHAUS
New York: G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS
Bombay and Calcutt: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.

[All rights reserved]

Cambridge County Geographies

CORNWALL

by

S. BARING-GOULD

With Maps, Diagrams, and Illustrations

Cambridge:

at the University Press
1910

Cambridge:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

MAPS

The illustrations on pp. 3, 4, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 24, 32, 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 47, 48, 49, 50, 54, 59, 60, 70, 73, 79, 81, 84, 86, 89, 91, 93, 95, 99, 105, 112, 113, 114, 117, 118, 120, 121, 123, 127, 138, 150, 151, 152, 153, 156, 158 are from photographs supplied by Messrs F. Frith & Co.; those on pp. 8, 43, 45, 58, 77, 94, 108, 109, 134 by Messrs Preston, Penzance; those on pp. 141, 146 by Mr Emery Walker, and those on pp. 6, 29, 34, 87, 119, 124, 130, 132 by Messrs Hayman & Son, Launceston.

1. County and Shire. Meaning of the word.

If we take a map of England and contrast it with a map of the United States, perhaps one of the first things we shall notice is the dissimilarity of the arbitrary divisions of land of which the countries are composed. In America the rigidly straight boundaries and rectangular shape of the majority of the States strike the eye at once; in England our wonder is rather how the boundaries have come to be so tortuous and complicated—to such a degree, indeed, that until recently many counties had outlying islands, as it were, within their neighbours' territory. We may guess at once that the conditions under which the divisions arose cannot have been the same, and that while in America these formal square blocks of land, like vast allotment gardens, were probably the creation of a central authority, and portioned off much about the same time; the divisions we find in England own no such simple origin. Our guess would not have been wrong, for such, in fact, is more or less the case. The formation of the English counties in many instances was (and is—for they have altered up to to-day) an affair of slow growth. King Alfred is credited with having made them, but inaccurately, for some existed before his time, others not till long after his death, and their origin was—as their names tell us—of very diverse nature.

Let us turn once more to our map of England. Collectively, we call all our divisions counties, but not every one of them is accurately thus described. Cornwall, as we shall see, is not. Some have names complete in themselves, such as Kent and Sussex, and we find these to be old English kingdoms with but little alteration either in their boundaries or their names. To others the terminal shire is appended, which tells us that they were shorn from a larger domain—shares of Mercia or Northumbria or some other of the great English kingdoms. The term county is of Norman introduction,—the domain of a Comte or Count.

Although we use the term county for Cornwall, we should not in accuracy do so, as just stated, for it is a Duchy, and has been such since March 17, 1337, when Edward of Woodstock, eldest son of King Edward III, was created Duke of Cornwall. Nor can it be called a shire, for Cornwall was a territory to itself. In 835 Athelstan drove the Britons across the Tamar and made that river the boundary between the Briton and the West Saxon of Devon.

The ancient name of Cornwall and Devon was Totnes, i.e. Dod-ynys, "the projecting island," and the Celtic population was that of the Dumnonii. It was not till the tenth century that the name Cornweales appears, signifying the Welsh of the Horn of Britain. The Latin form of Cornwall is Cornubia. The ancient British settlers in the present department of Finistère called that portion of Gaul Cornouaille.

2. General Characteristics.

On many accounts Cornwall may be regarded as one of the most interesting counties of England, whether we regard it for its coast scenery, its products, or its antiquities. It has lain so much out of the main current of the life of England that it was hardly mixed up with the politics of the nation till the time of the Civil War.

Its situation, projecting as it does into the sea, by which it is washed on all sides but one, has naturally caused the natives to take to the water, and has made Cornwall to be the mother of a hardy breed of fishermen and sailors. But the county being also rich in mineral wealth has from an early age caused a large portion of the manhood of the land to seek their livelihood in mines; and the peculiar conditions of Cornwall have thus determined the professions of a large proportion of its males to be either on the water or under ground.

Luxulyan Village

The interior of the county cannot be regarded as beautiful, consisting of a backbone of elevated land, wind-swept, and over a large area covered with mine-ramps and the skeletons of abandoned machine-houses standing up gaunt amidst the desolation. But the valleys are always beautiful, and the Bodmin moors, if not so lofty and broken as Dartmoor, are yet fine, and Brown Willy, Rough Tor, and Kilmar are really noble tors.

On the Bodmin moors is Dozmare Pool, the only lake, excepting Loe Pool, that exists in Cornwall. It is small and shallow. There were others formerly, now encroached on or smothered by morass.

Dozmare Pool

In Cornwall it is quite possible to take a stride from the richest vegetation into the abomination of desolation. It has been said in mockery that Cornwall does not grow wood enough to make coffins for the people. The old timber was cut down to supply the furnaces for smelting tin, and it is true that there is not in Cornwall as magnificent timber as may be seen in other counties, but the valleys are everywhere well wooded, and the Cornish elm, that grows almost like a trimmed poplar, stands up lank above the lower trees and coppice.

3. Size, Shape, Boundaries.

Cornwall bears a certain resemblance to Italy, each is like a leg or boot, but Italy stands a-tiptoe to the south, whereas Cornwall is thrust out to the west. But, whereas Italy is kicking Sicily as a football, Cornwall has but the shattered group of the Scilly Isles at its toe.

It touches but one other county, Devonshire, on the east; on all other sides it is washed by the sea, the Atlantic on the north and the English Channel on the south. The heel is the curious projection of the Lizard, and the toe is Land's End. On the east the river Tamar forms mainly the boundary between itself and Devon, except just north of Launceston, where a small portion of Devonshire juts into Cornwall, bounded on the south by the river Attery, and comprising the parishes of North Petherwin and Werrington. This is due to the land in these parishes having belonged to the Abbey of Tavistock, and the monks desiring to have all their lands comprised in one county. The area of Cornwall is 886,384 acres, or 1385 square miles.

The Tamar, near Calstock

It is the most westerly county in England, and also the most southerly. Its greatest length from the N.E. corner beyond Morwenstow to the Land's End is 80 miles; and its greatest breadth between Marsland Mouth and Rame Head is 46 miles. But it shrinks towards the toe, and between St Ives' Bay and Mounts Bay it is not five miles across.

The Scilly Isles, situated twenty-five miles S.W. from the Land's End, are a part of Cornwall, and have an area of 4041 acres. Formerly, a part of the township of Bridgerule, with 1010 acres on the Devon side of the Tamar, belonged to Cornwall, but has now been dissevered and annexed to Devonshire.

The north coast is sadly deficient in harbours. Bude Haven can accommodate only the smallest vessels, Boscastle is a dangerous creek, Padstow Harbour is barred by the Doom Bank lying across the entrance, and there is none other till we reach St Ives' Bay. On the south coast are Mounts Bay, Falmouth, Charlestown in St Austell Bay, Par, Fowey, Looe, Cawsand Bay, and the Hamoaze that opens into Plymouth Sound. Of these only Falmouth Harbour, once the great station for the packet boats, is good.

The Scilly Isles comprise 145 rocky masses, six only are large islands, and five only are inhabited. The other inhabited islands about Cornwall are very small, these are St Michael's Mount and Looe Island. The promontory of Lleyn in Cardiganshire presents a curious resemblance to Cornwall, and as Cornwall has its detached group of islands in Scilly, so Lleyn has its Bardsey.

Grimsby Channel and Eastern Islands, Scilly

4. Surface and General Features.

Bodmin

To the east and north-east is the large granite mass of the Bodmin moors. It is these striking granitic masses, here and further west—at the Land's End, at St Breage, in the district north of Helston, and again north of St Austell—which form the bolder features of the county. A remarkable depression lies between Marazion and St Ives' Bay, utilised by the railway from Hayle to Marazion road. It almost seems as if the whole of Penwith, the portion west of this trough, had at one time been an island, with a channel of sea between it and the mainland. On the other hand, at a remote period there can be no doubt that there extended far out broad low-lying lands which are now covered by the sea, for forest beds have been found in Mounts Bay, in Padstow Bay, at St Columb Major, and elsewhere, showing that there has been a subsidence of the land. This has given rise to the fable of a drowned realm of Lyonesse, but this Lyonesse never existed in or near Cornwall; it was Léon in Brittany. But if there has been subsidence, there has also been an elevation of the land, as is shown by the raised beaches that can be traced along the coast. In the south are found flint pebbles in these raised beaches, showing that the wash at one period was not as now from west to east, but the reverse. It was from these flint pebbles in the elevated beaches that prehistoric man in Cornwall obtained the material for the fabrication of his tools and weapons. The elevation of the land, which dried up the channel between the Land's End and the mainland, preceded the depression which sunk the now submerged forests.

To the north of the great granite boss that forms the Bodmin moors a ridge of cold moors rises, setting its back against the Atlantic and feeding the rivers that flow south with the rain that pours over it. Very little can be grown on these heights: they produce a little barley, but are mainly covered with rushes, coarse grass, and furze bushes. No considerable heights are reached till we come to Carnmarth and Carn Brea, each only 700 ft. above the sea. Then there is no distinct height till we reach Godolphin and Tregonning hills of 560 ft. and 600 ft. Towards Land's End there are greater heights—700 ft. and a little over, but this is naught compared with Brown Willy, 1368, and Kilmar, 1297, in the east. But it must be understood that grand mountain, or even fine hill scenery is not to be met with in western Cornwall. Its glory is in its magnificent coast-line; and its beauty is to be found in its lovely valleys and coombes.

Rough Tor

The general features of a country depend on its geological structure. Granite formation, slate rock, sandstone, limestone, chalk—all have their special characters, unmistakable. When we are among the granites in the west of England we expect a tent-like shape of hill with a tor of rock at the summit; the sides strewn with a "clatter" of fallen rock, and clothed in heather and furze. When we come to the slates, and the overlying cold clays, we expect little except in the gorges and valleys cut through the strata by the streams. Of sandstone, or of chalk, forming breezy rolling downs, there is none in Cornwall, nor of limestone with its bold scars, such as are met with in the western hills of Yorkshire. We must take what we can find—and much can be found in Cornwall if we do not expect too much, nor look for what is not there, and under existing geological conditions could not be there.

St Keyne's Well, Liskeard

5. Watershed, Rivers.

From what has been already said, it will be seen that the great spinal column of Cornwall is in the north and that consequently the principal rivers must flow to the south. It is true that the Camel and its tributaries rise in the north and flow north to debouch into Padstow estuary, but that is the only river of the smallest consequence that directly feeds the Atlantic.

On the Camel

The Camel rises in the wind-swept, sodden, clay land above Boscastle, and dribbles down to Camelford, passing under Slaughter Bridge and the stone of Lateinos which traditionally mark the scene of King Arthur's last fight and death. After leaving Camelford, it plunges through a beautiful wooded valley, under Helsbury Castle occupying a bleak conical hill—a castle of the Dukes of Cornwall, but consisting only of a stone camp of prehistoric date and a ruined chapel in the midst dedicated to St Sith or Itha, an Irish saint. It passes Lavethan, a hospitium of the monks of Bodmin, and between wooded banks through Pencarrow and Dunmeer woods, and having run south, it now turns north to meet and mingle waters with the Allan, which has cleft for itself a very similar and equally beautiful valley. The Allan rises near the slate quarries of Delabole, and glides down by St Teath, and by St Mabyn on its bleak stormbeaten height, itself snug between beautiful hanging woods and with sweet old-world manor houses clustering near, and meets the Camel at Egloshayle. Thence they flow away into the Padstow estuary under the old 15th century bridge at Wadebridge, past the Camelot of legend—the only streams of any consequence that flow north.

With regard to the Tamar, we may call it as we please a Devonshire or a Cornish river. It divides the counties through the principal part of its course, but it has its source in Morwenstow, on a wretched moor, in Cornwall. Not much can be said in its favour till it reaches Bridgerule. From that point past North Tamerton (and Vacey, which although on the left bank was included in Cornwall, and has two formidable earthworks) it glides down to Werrington, where it meets the waters of the Attery and passes under Polson Bridge within sight of Launceston. Thenceforth the Tamar is in the full bloom of beauty. Carthamartha (Caer Tamar) stands at its junction with the Inny. Below Polson Bridge it has accepted the Lyd from Devon. Then through the lands and woods of the Duke of Bedford at lovely Endsleigh, under the bold crags of Morwell, up to which the tide reaches, then past Calstock and Cothele, and in serpentine writhes about Pentillie Castle, and so into the Hamoaze—the most beautiful river in England, excepting possibly the Wye.

Wadebridge

The Inny, one of the feeders of the Tamar and altogether Cornish, must not be omitted, for it is a beautiful stream. It rises in the elevated land by Davidstowe and ripples down near Altarnon, passing in a picturesque valley the Holy Well and chapel of St Clether and the ancestral seat of the Trevelyan family at Basil; then, still in its beautiful valley, past Polyphant, famous for its quarries of a stone that admits of the most delicate carving, until it reaches the Tamar at Innyfoot. It is a river rich in trout. An old Cornish song of the Altarnon volunteer has the verse:

O Altarnon! O Altarnon! I ne'er shall see thee more,
Nor hear the sweet bells ringing, nor stand in the church door,
Nor hear the birds a-whistling, nor in the Inny stream
See silver trout glance by me, as thoughts glance by in dream.

It is not however the Inny but a tributary that actually passes Altarnon.

Royal Albert Bridge, Saltash

The Lynher falls into the Hamoaze, running for much of its course parallel to the Inny. It rises in the Bodmin moors and flows through the beautiful grounds of Trebartha where it receives a feeder from Trewartha marsh that leaps to meet it in a pretty cascade. Trewartha marsh has been turned over and over for tin and gold, and the Squire of Trebartha formerly furnished his daughters with gold rings made from the precious ore found in it. A curious settlement of the Celtic period exists above the marsh. It has however been much mutilated by farmers, who have carried off the stones for the construction of pigstyes. The Lynher flows through the park of the Earl of St Germans, past the beautiful church with its Norman west front, and then is lost in the united waters of the Tamar and the Tavy.

Under Brown Willy is a pool called Fowey Well, which is traditionally held to be the source of the Fowey river. This however is not the case. It rises under Buttern Hill (1135 ft.) crowned by cairns, but as the Fowey Well has no outlet visible, it is supposed to decant by a subterranean stream into the river. Leaping down from the moors, the Fowey enters a wooded valley and, turning abruptly west, flows through another well timbered valley. Running beside the railway, and then turning sharply south, it passes the old Stannery town of Lostwithiel, to which the tide reaches, and plunging into a narrow glen with St Winnow on one side and Golant on the other, finally reaches the sea at Fowey harbour.

There are two Looe rivers, one rising in the Bodmin moors receives the overflow of Dozmare Pool, and flowing deep below Liskeard receives the West Looe above the estuary. Duloe, which has a small but interesting circle of upright stones, stands between them and is supposed to be so called as between the two Looes. Before reaching Duloe the river has passed under St Keyne, famous for its Holy Well commemorated by Southey in a well-known ballad.

There is no river of any importance till we reach the Fal. Rising on Goss Moor, not far from St Columb, and passing Grampound and Tregony, now an utterly decayed place, it meets the Tressilian and the Truro rivers, and all three, insignificant hitherto, suddenly acquire importance and spread out into the beautiful estuary of the Fal or Carrick Roads. Here are Penryn creek, Mylor creek, and Porthcuel harbour, commanded by the castle of St Mawes. None of these owe their importance to the sweet waters they bring down; all their value is due to the tide that flows up to Truro.

The entrance to the Roads is found between Zoze Point and Pendennis Point, the latter at one time defended by a strong castle. Almost halfway between the points is the dangerous Black Rock, to which a former Trefusis conveyed his wife and there left her to be overwhelmed by the rising tide. Happily she was rescued by some fishermen. The Helford river is but a creek, noted for its oyster beds, into which a little stream dribbles.

6. Geology and Soil.

By Geology we mean the study of the rocks, and we must at the outset explain that the term rock is used by the geologist without any reference to the hardness or compactness of the material to which the name is applied; thus he speaks of loose sand as a rock equally with a hard substance like granite.

Rocks are of two kinds, (1) those laid down mostly under water, (2) those due to the action of fire.

The first kind may be compared to sheets of paper one over the other. These sheets are called beds, and such beds are usually formed of sand (often containing pebbles), mud or clay, and limestone, or mixtures of these materials. They are laid down as flat or nearly flat sheets, but may afterwards be tilted as the result of movement of the earth's crust, just as you may tilt sheets of paper, folding them into arches and troughs, by compressing their ends. Again, we may find the tops of the folds so produced wasted away as the result of the wearing action of rivers, glaciers, and sea-waves upon them, as you might cut off the tops of the folds of the paper with a pair of shears. This has happened with the ancient beds forming parts of the earth's crust, and we therefore often find them tilted, with the upper parts removed.

The other kinds of rocks are known as igneous rocks, which have been melted under the action of heat and become solid on cooling. When in the molten state they have been poured out at the surface as the lava of volcanoes, or have been forced into other rocks and cooled in the cracks and other places of weakness. Much material is also thrown out of volcanoes as volcanic ash and dust, and is piled up on the sides of the volcano. Such ashy material may be arranged in beds, so that it partakes to some extent of the qualities of the two great rock groups.

The production of beds is of great importance to geologists, for by means of these beds we can classify the rocks according to age. If we take two sheets of paper, and lay one on the top of the other on a table, the upper one has been laid down after the other. Similarly with two beds, the upper is also the newer, and the newer will remain on the top after earth-movements, save in very exceptional cases which need not be regarded by us here, and for general purposes we may regard any bed or set of beds resting on any other in our own country as being the newer bed or set.

The movements which affect beds may occur at different times. One set of beds may be laid down flat, then thrown into folds by movement, the tops of the beds worn off, and another set of beds laid down upon the worn surface of the older beds, the edges of which will abut against the oldest of the new set of flatly deposited beds, which latter may in turn undergo disturbance and renewal of their upper portions.

Again, after the formation of the beds many changes may occur in them. They may become hardened, pebble-beds being changed into conglomerates, sands into sandstones, muds and clays into mudstones and shales, softdeposits of lime into limestone, and loose volcanic ashes into exceedingly hard rocks. They may also become cracked, and the cracks are often very regular, running in two directions at right angles one to the other. Such cracks are known as joints, and the joints are very important in affecting the physical geography of a district. Then, as the result of great pressure applied sideways, the rocks may be so changed that they can be split into thin slabs, which usually, though not necessarily, split along planes standing at high angles to the horizontal. Rocks affected in this way are known as slates.

If we could flatten out all the beds of England, and arrange them one over the other and bore a shaft through them, we should see them on the sides of the shaft, the newest appearing at the top and the oldest at the bottom, as shown in the table. Such a shaft would have a depth of between 10,000 and 20,000 feet. The strata beds are divided into three great groups called Primary or Palaeozoic, Secondary or Mesozoic, and Tertiary or Cainozoic, and the lowest Primary rocks are the oldest rocks of Britain, which form as it were the foundation stones on which the other rocks rest. These may be spoken of as the Pre-Cambrian rocks. The three great groups are divided into minor divisions known as systems. The names of these systems are arranged in order in the table and on the right hand side the general characters of the rocks of each system are stated.

With these preliminary remarks we may now proceed to a brief account of the geology of the county.

Sectional Diagram

This cross section shows what would be seen in a deep cutting nearly E. and W. across England and Wales. It shows also how, in consequence of the folding of the strata and the cutting off of the uplifted parts, old rocks which should be thousands of feet down are found in borings in East Anglia only 1000 feet or so below the surface.

In Cornwall there is a succession of nodes of granite rising to the surface, a continuation westward of the mass of Dartmoor. It has surged to the surface in four large masses continued westward by the Scilly Isles. These granitic masses have upheaved the superincumbent beds of stratified rocks, partly melting them. These distinct nodes are: the Bodmin moors, the St Austell elevation, the Carn Menelez, and the Land's End district. Smaller masses of granite occur in the double heights of Godolphin and Tregonning, St Michael's Mount, Carn Brea and Carn Marth, and Castel-an-Dinas.

The Cheesewring

The Elvans are dykes of quartz-porphyry which issue from the granite into the surrounding slates, and are often mistakenly supposed to be a bastard granite.

The granite in its upheaval has strangely altered and contorted the superposed beds. There are as well intrusive veins of igneous rocks. In the Lizard district is serpentine, a compact, tough rock often of a green colour, lending itself to a high polish, and forming magnificent cliffs with a special gloss and colour, as well as maintaining on the surface a special flora.

The prime feature in Cornish geology is the upheaval of the granite, distorting, folding back, and altering the superincumbent beds.

In the north-east of Cornwall from a line drawn from below Launceston, on the Tamar, to Boscastle the rocks belong to the culm measures of North Devon. All the rest of the peninsula, except the protruding granite and the serpentine of the Lizard, pertains to the Devonian series of sedimentary rocks, in which the first signs of life appear; consisting largely of clay-slate, locally known as Killas, alternating with beds of red or grey grit and sandstone. Although these slaty rocks must be some thousand feet in thickness, they have been so broken up and turned over by the convulsions of the earth that their chronological sequence cannot easily be determined. In these convulsions they have been rent, and through the rents have been driven hot blasts that have deposited crystalline veins, or injections of trap and other volcanic matter, altering the character of the rock through which they have been driven. By the Menheniot Station on the G.W.R. is a hill of serpentine thrown up at one jet, and now largely quarried for the sake of the roads.

The culm measures already alluded to consist of black shales and slates with seams of grit and chert, much undulated through enormous lateral pressure. The granite, the lowest and most ancient formation of all, was itself consolidated under vast pressure from above, and was not in a molten condition when forced to the surface. Had it been so, it would have resolved itself into lava. It was cold when upheaved, tearing apart the superincumbent stratified sedimentary rocks, which disappeared from the summits, and on all sides about these upheavals were twisted, contorted, thrown back, and fissured.

Atmospheric effect and natural gravitation is constantly carrying the soil from the upper land, from the hills into the bottoms, and consequently it is in the latter that we find the richest land, best calculated to repay the toil of the agriculturist. On the high moors there is little depth of so called "meat earth," below which is clay and grit, hard and unprofitable, commonly called the "calm" or the "deads." But adjoining the granite is the wash from it of its dissolved felspar, the china-clay that furnishes the inhabitants of the St Austell district with a remunerative and ever-growing industry, of which more presently.

7. Natural History.

Various facts, which can only shortly be mentioned here, go to show that the British Isles have not existed as such, and separated from the Continent, for any great length of geological time. Around our coasts, for instance, and specially in Cornwall, are in several places remains of forests now sunk beneath the sea, and only to be seen at extreme low water. Between England and the Continent the sea is very shallow, and St Paul's Cathedral might be placed anywhere in the North Sea without submerging its summit, but a little west of Ireland we soon come to very deep soundings. Great Britain and Ireland were thus once part of the Continent and are examples of what geologists call recent continental islands. But we also have no less certain proof that at some anterior period they were almost entirely submerged. The fauna and flora thus being destroyed, the land would have to be restocked with animals and plants from the Continent when union again took place, the influx of course coming from the east and south. As, however, it was not long before separation occurred, not all the continental species could establish themselves. We should thus expect to find that the parts in the neighbourhood of the Continent were richer in species and those furthest off poorer, and this proves to be the case both in plants and animals. While Britain has fewer species than France or Belgium, Ireland has still less than Britain.

Small though England may be, she can nevertheless show most striking differences of fauna and flora in different districts. On the moors of the north, for example, the heaths and berries underfoot, and the larger birds of prey and grouse which now and again meet our view offer a marked contrast to—let us say—the furze-clad chalk downs of Sussex, where the wheatear and whinchat and the copper butterflies and "blues" are familiar objects. These differences depend upon a number of conditions, often mutually interdependent—upon variations of soil, rainfall, temperature, and so forth. Cornwall presents unusual peculiarities in many ways, and we may now consider how far these have affected the creatures and plants within her borders.

Firstly, Cornwall is remotely situated—one of the extreme points of Western Europe—and, whether the fact be dependent on food conditions or not, we find that there are several species of bird, common in other parts of England, which do not occur within the county, such as the nightingale, the wood warbler, garden warbler, redstart, and others. It would almost seem as if some of these species had not found their way thither since the re-peopling of the land by its present fauna, but were in gradual process of doing so, for there is no doubt that many birds rare or unknown in the Duchy half a century ago are now not uncommon, and appear to be steadily moving westward. That the starling is doing so is perhaps not remarkable, for this bird has enormously increased in numbers of late years and has spread everywhere, even up into northern Scotland, but it is curious that birds like the stock-dove and all the woodpeckers and other non-gregarious sorts should show this tendency.

In a Cornish Garden

Next, Cornwall is from its position constantly exposed to high winds, and to heavy gales in winter, combined with an unusually heavy rainfall and an "insular" climate tending to warmth and equableness. These factors, added to the granitic formation of much of its area, have made it a country of bleak moorland varied with thickly-wooded deep valleys—dampness being the leading characteristic of both. With such physical conditions, then, we should expect to find the Duchy not very varied in its native trees, perhaps, but particularly abundant in ferns, and this is the case, for 39 species are recorded, while lichens are not less rich. It bears in many ways a resemblance to the climate of Portugal, for here the camellia flourishes and displays its beautiful flowers to perfection, and the tea plant does so well that there seems no reason why it should not be grown for profit. It is not a land of warblers, nor can it show the rich and varied wildfowl fauna of the Fenlands, but there is no county in England where, in the marshy glens, woodcocks are more abundant. The moorlands, too, abound in snipe, and at one time blackgame were common, but the larger birds of prey have for the most part vanished, though an occasional buzzard may be seen and the raven is not yet extinct.

Lastly, it is to be noted that Cornwall is the nearest part of England to America. However difficult it may be of explanation, the fact remains that the Duchy is very rich in rare birds; so rich, indeed, that their recorded occurrence cannot by any possibility be merely accidental. Thus, no less than 24 species have occurred in Cornwall which have never been found in Devonshire. But more than this, a very large number of these—18 or more—are purely American species. The question is, whence do they come? Professor James Clark, who has discussed the point at some length in the Victoria County History, is, apparently, loth to believe that they can come directly across the Atlantic, and it is by many thought that they are driven back by heavy south-westerly weather when dropping down the English Channel, having come by a circuitous route from Northern Europe. But against this is the undeniable fact that it is in the immediate neighbourhood of the Land's End that the chief rarities and stragglers are obtained, while many species have been shot in the Scilly Islands which have never been recorded from Cornwall itself.

So far as its botany is concerned, Cornwall does not differ very markedly from Devonshire, but it has a large number of rare or peculiar plants. The highlands and north coast are rather poor in species; it is on the banks and estuaries of the streams that the richest flora is seen. A number of foreign plants are found, mostly in the neighbourhood of Falmouth and other ports. The balsam, Impatiens Roylei, from India, grows extremely abundantly between Liskeard and Looe, and near Tintagel, and a species of May-weed (Matricaria discoidea) has become a troublesome pest near Falmouth. Loe Pool in the Lizard district is noticeable for the number of rare and local plants it possesses. The Scilly Islands own certain plants peculiar to them; thus, Trifolium repens, var. Townsendi and Ornithopus ebracteatus are said not to be found elsewhere in England, and Carex ligerica only in Norfolk.

The chief feature of the mammals of the county is that the grey seal, Halichaerus gryphus, is quite numerous in the Scilly Islands; that the polecat, though nearly extinct, is still found; and that both badgers and otters are very abundant. It is a curious fact that certain freshwater fish common in other parts of England, such as pike, roach, chub, and bream, are unknown.

The bird which bears the distinctive appellation, the Cornish chough (it is not confined to the county, but is also found in Wales), is now not nearly as common as formerly, but like the raven it still breeds on some parts of the coast.

8. Around the Coast. From Morwenstow to Land's End.

Bude Breakwater

This noble coast—so terrible to sailors—begins with the fine Henna Cliff at Morwenstow. Morwenstow Church contains an early font and has fine Norman arches. Here is Tonacombe, an interesting early Tudor house quite unspoiled. At Morwenstow lived the Rev. Robert Hawker, a poet and character. Bude Haven is a growing seaside place, with golf-links and tolerable bathing. Stratton, of which parish it actually forms or did form a part, has a fine well-cared for church, and above the town is Stamford Hill, where was fought a battle in the Civil War, on May 16, 1643. Sir Bevil Grenville and Hopton commanded the Royalist Army, and the Earl of Stamford the Parliamentarians. The latter were defeated with the loss of 300 men killed and 1700 taken prisoners. One of the old guns marks the site, and an inscription in commemoration of the battle is affixed to the Tree Inn. Widemouth Bay has good sands and promises at some future day to become a sea-bathing place superior to Bude. At Dazard the cliffs are fine; at St Gennys is Crackington Cove with a small beach. Beyond this, High Cliff (705 ft.) is reached, the loftiest headland on the coast. The coast is magnificent to Boscastle. Near this is Pentargon, a beautiful bay into which a little stream leaps in a waterfall. Boscastle is a narrow creek into which only in calm weather can small vessels enter. It is sheltered by a headland in which is a blow-hole. In a lovely valley is the towerless church of Minster. In caves about Willapark seals breed. From hence to Tintagel the cliffs are of slate and are quarried, the slate being let down into boats in the water, when weather permits. Before reaching Tintagel we come to St Neighton's (Nectan's) Kieve, a small waterfall in a glen, where maidenhair fern once abounded.

Tintagel village is separated from the church by a deep glen. The church is on a windy height, and is interesting for its antiquity. Tintagel castle stands on a headland, once an island, but the cliff and a portion of the castle have fallen into the narrow gulf and choked it. The sea has bored a tunnel through the headland, and very little of the castle remains. The walls were of the local slate-stone set in mortar made of sea-shells. In this castle, traditionally, King Arthur was born. There are slate quarries in the neighbourhood, and further inland are the Delabole quarries, from which slate is conveyed to all parts of England.

King Arthur's Castle, Tintagel

The small Trebarwith Cove is passed and then we reach Port Isaac Bay, which takes its name, not from the patriarch, but from a Cornish word that signifies a port for corn.

Bodruthan Steps

Porthqueen has its pilchard cellars cut out of the rocks; and at the western end of its bay Pentire Head stands out boldly into the Atlantic with a cliff castle at its extreme point. Pentire to some extent shelters Padstow Bay, but the entrance to the harbour is made dangerous by the Doom Bar lying across it. Here the rounded, sand-powdered Bray Hill is supposed to have buried under the drift sand the remains of a Roman town, but that there was such a Roman settlement is very doubtful. Further inland is the church of St Enodoc recently dug out of the sand, and the path to the porch has singular "Lord's Measures" that have been collected and are here planted. They were measures for grain. Of Padstow something shall be said elsewhere. Before reaching Trevose Head is Harlyn Bay, where from under the sand has been dug out a cemetery of the iron age, the skeletons crouching with their chins to their knees, in slate kists or coffins, with bronze ornaments, glass and amber beads, and iron instruments. Here also by the falling of the earth or sand some gold ornaments of the Celtic period were laid bare. On Trevose Head is a lighthouse. In Constantine Bay are the remains of a church half buried in sand, and with bones strewn about it. The font from this abandoned church has been transferred to St Merryn. It is of black Catacluse stone, as are the piers and arches of the church, giving it a sombre look. Passing the little Porthcothan we come to the noble cliffs of Bodruthan Steps, perhaps the finest bit of the north-coast scenery, and then reach Mawgan Porth, the estuary of the tiny stream that waters the vale of Lanherne. Here is the ancient mansion of the Arundells, dating from 1580, granted by Lord Arundell to Carmelite nuns, who came to England, at the outbreak of the French Revolution, in 1794. They have remained here ever since in seclusion. Near the door into their chapel is an old cross with inscription and interlaced work. The church has a beautifully proportioned tower, a good rood-screen, and many monuments of the Arundells, as well as a remarkable Gothic cross. A grove of Cornish elms like whips occupies the bottom of the valley. The church and parish are St Mawgan in Pyder.

Newquay Harbour

Newquay with its sands is a rapidly growing watering-place, with staring hotels. Crantock church, which once had its canons, is interesting; it has been carefully restored and has a fine rood-screen and loft. On the stalls is carved a dove with a chip of wood in its beak, and the story goes that St Carantoc—who assisted St Patrick in drawing up the Senchus Môr, the code of laws for Christian Ireland—was guided to the site for his church by seeing a dove carry off the shavings of his staff which he was cutting. Perran Bay has sent its sands flying inland, causing a widespread extent of towans or dunes, which have overwhelmed first of all the old church of St Piran or Cieran of Saighir in Ireland, who was buried in it, and then a second church built further inland, which also in turn had to be abandoned. These sand-dunes are a rabbit warren. The old church of St Piran, extremely rude in construction, has been excavated, but the only carved work found has been removed to the museum at Truro. The church resembles one of the early Christian chapels in Ireland. Bones are scattered about around it.

St Agnes—or St Aun's Head as it is locally termed—is but 617 ft. high, but it stands boldly above the sea.

Portreath is a busy little place to which coal-barges come from Cardiff with coal for the Camborne and Redruth mines. Tehidy Park, which stands above it, is an old seat of the Bassets. After passing Navax Point the broad Bay of St Ives opens out, with a lighthouse at each horn, and here again begin the towans or sand-dunes. Hayle is at the mouth of a small stream of the same name, and signifies "saltings." We come now to the town of St Ives, with an interesting church and an old cross. St Ives till about 1410 was but a tiny fishing village and was in the parish of Lelant. Perkin Warbeck landed near here in 1497.

Near this is the Knill monument erected in 1782 by the eccentric John Knill, who left money for an annual procession to it, and a dance of children around it. He intended it to have been his mausoleum, but he died and was buried in London.

The Wharf, St Ives

Zennor has a curious little church with carved bench ends, on one of which is represented a mermaid, and Zennor "quoit" is thought to be the largest cromlech in England.

The Gurnard's Head has sheer cliffs on east and west, composed of slaty felspar, horneblende and greenstone, whereas the rocks of Zennor are of granite and slate in juxtaposition, and with dykes of granite penetrating the slate. Hills of rock and heather and furze bend round in a crescent terminating on one side at Carnminnis, on the other at Carn Galva, enclosing a great basin that reaches to the cliffs. On the isthmus connecting the headland with the mainland is a ruined chapel, with the altar-stone entire. Three miles westward is Morvah with the interesting Chûn Castle above it, of rude stone forming three concentric rings, and not far off is Chûn cromlech.

We come now to Botallack with its famous mine, carried to a depth of a thousand feet and extending a considerable distance under the sea. In time of storm the booming of the waves overhead and the clashing of stones rolled by the billows is so great that the bravest miners are driven from their work. Tin mining is now but languidly carried on. Although the heights are not great, yet this portion of coast is remarkably fine.

Cape Cornwall exhibits the junction of the slate with the granite. Here also extensive mining has been carried on, and Boswedden, like Botallack, burrowed far under the sea. Near the church of St Just is one of the circles or amphitheatres in which miracle plays were performed. The "Merry Maidens" is a prehistoric stone circle in the neighbourhood with ten stones erect and five fallen.

Whitesand Bay enjoys some slight shelter from the S. and E. winds. It is said that this bay was the landing-place of Athelstan after his conquest of Scilly, of King Stephen in 1135, and of King John when he returned from Ireland. In Sennen Cove is a cluster of fishermen's cottages.

Land's End is the end of Penwith, the "chief headland," and the Bolerium of the ancients. It commands a magnificent view, extending to Cape Cornwall over Whitesand Bay, of the Longships rocks with their lighthouse, and in clear weather of the Scilly Isles. The Wolf lighthouse is planted on a dangerous rock of felspathic porphyry some eight miles S.W. from the shore. The Land's End bristles with sharp fangs of rock, and somewhat resembles the back of an alligator.

Land's End

9. Around the Coast. From Land's End to Rame Head.

The south coast-line of Cornwall presents a great contrast to that of the north, except for the portion from the Land's End to Mounts Bay and the Lizard. We have no more the wind-swept background of heights, barren and often tortured by miners, turned into a waste of heaps of rubble and studded with ruined engine-houses. We find instead a gentler sea-board, pierced by long estuaries, and with valleys of rich vegetation running down to the sea. We speedily leave the granite and the culm measures, and are among the rocks of the Devonian series, less stern and forbidding in colour. In St Levan parish at Trereen Point is the Logan Rock, a block of granite weighing over 65 tons, once so nicely balanced that it could be made to rock by the finger of a child. In 1874 a young naval officer, with the assistance of a boat's crew, upset it. This raised a storm of indignation in Cornwall, and the Admiralty ordered him to replace it, which he did, at great expense.

Newlyn Pier

Mousehole is a village of fishermen and boatmen, and was the residence of Dolly Pentreath, the last person in Cornwall who spoke the Cornish language, as also of some of the unfortunate sailors who joined Captain Allan Gardner in 1850 in his ill-fated missionary expedition to South America. All the members of the mission died of starvation in Tierra del Fuego.

St Michael's Mount

Newlyn has become noted as a place of residence of a school of artists. It is on the wide and beautiful Mounts Bay over against St Michael's Mount.

Kynance Cove and the Lizard

Penzance ("the Holy Head") has become a great resort of residents for the winter, owing to the mildness of the climate. Marazion or Market Jew does not derive its name from "the Bitter Waters of Zion" as has been absurdly asserted; Marazion has the same significance as Market Jeu (i.e. Jeudi), Thursday Market. Here is a submerged forest. St Michael's Mount is a rock that rises out of the sands and can be reached, when the tide falls, by a causeway. It is incomparably inferior both in elevation and in the dignity of the buildings that crown it to the Mont St Michel in Normandy, but is nevertheless a picturesque adjunct to the scene. Some writers suppose that it is the Ictis to which the natives conveyed the tin and trafficked with the Phoenicians, but it is totally unsuited by nature to serve as a market-site, and there is no certain evidence that the Phoenicians ever came to Cornwall. About Marazion daffodils, narcissus, and violets are cultivated largely for the London market. At Perran Uthnoe the cliffs again appear, and we reach Prussia Cove, once the haunt of smugglers. Inland, Godolphin and Tregonning's granite hills are conspicuous, and near the coast is Pergersick Castle, a picturesque ruin of which strange legends are told. Porthleven is a small fishing village, where the people live on the annual arrival of the pilchards. Loe Pool is a beautiful sheet of water cut off from the sea by a bar of sand. It was when standing on this bar, and watching the wreck of a vessel close in shore when those on the land were unable to communicate with it, that Henry Trengrouse conceived the idea of a rocket apparatus, to be not only employed on land, but also to be carried by every ship. He, of course, met with opposition from the Board of Trade and the Government, and he spent his life and his fortune in experiments, and in endeavours to push his apparatus.

Mullion Cove

We now reach the superb serpentine cliffs of the Lizard with the beautiful coves of Polurrian, Mullion, and Kynance. At Lizard Point is one of the most famous of all lighthouses, the departure-point or landfall of thousands of ships in the course of the year. The peninsula of the Lizard is interesting, though the land does not rise much above 300 ft., and is monotonous moorland. All its charm is in its coast-line. The terrible Manacles rocks have been the scene of many a wreck. Helford river is a creek running up to Gweek in one arm and nearly to Constantine in another. We now reach Falmouth Bay, into which opens the Carrick Road. A curious peninsula, Roseland, runs to Zoze Point, where there is a lighthouse. Portscatho is a small place at the opening of Gerrans Bay, of which the eastern horn is Nare Point. Carn Beacon is traditionally held to have been the burial-place of Geraint, King of Devon and Cornwall. There were more than one of this name. The cairn has been opened and was found to contain a stone cist of the bronze period, and not, as tradition said, his golden boat with silver oars. Veryan Bay between Nare Point and the Dodman has in it no good harbour. Dodman stands nearly 380 ft. above the sea.

Falmouth, from Flushing

Mevagissey Bay is a shallow hollow between Chapel Point and Black Head, the latter crowned by one of the cliff castles found on almost every headland. Then comes St Austell Bay with that of Tywardreath opening out of it. Charlestown has latterly become of importance, as from thence much china-clay is shipped.

We reach now the narrow estuary of the Fowey river, with Fowey town consisting of one narrow street beside the tidal creek, and with Polruan on the further shore. The coast now becomes very bold, and Polperro, five miles beyond, was once a notorious haunt of smugglers.

Polperro

At Looe, the two rivers bearing the same name fall into a bay, and seaward stands up Looe Island, crowned by the ruins of a chapel. This island was also a haunt of smugglers, and it was found necessary to establish a coastguard station on it to keep them in control. East Looe and West Looe each sent two members to Parliament before the passing of the Reform Bill.

Looe

Between Looe and Rame Head is Whitesand Bay, so called from the whiteness of the sand. The quicksands have made it dangerous for bathers, but the cliff scenery is beautiful and romantic. There is a tiny watering-place at its western end, Downderry. At Tregantle is the most important of the western defences of Plymouth. A peninsula is formed by the Lynher river which discharges into the Hamoaze, and the neck of land between it and the sea is about two miles in breadth. Tregantle stands 400 ft. above the sea and commands every approach to Plymouth Sound.

Rame Head projects into the sea from Maker Heights and is the termination of a range of cliffs from Looe, and from hence a fine view can be had of the Cornish coast as far as the Lizard.

On the east of Penlee Point is Cawsand Bay, once infested with smugglers, sheltered by Rame Head from westerly gales. A rock with a cave in it and a white incrustation is regarded here with some superstitious reverence, and fishermen throw a few pilchards or herrings to it as an oblation when returning from fishing.

10. The Coast—Gains and Losses.

At a vastly remote period a valley lay between Britain and Gaul—before ever they were Britain and Gaul—and through this well-wooded valley flowed a river. The coast-line of Britain then lay from one to two hundred miles to the west, where is now the great drop in the ocean depths from 100 fathoms to 300 or 400. Cornwall was a Mesopotamia, a land between two almost parallel rivers, one occupying the bottom of what is now the English Channel, the other being the Severn. At that time the Bristol Channel was another great valley. From Brown Willy to the Scilly Isles ran a lofty mountain range, towering into the sky, of which the present Bodmin moors, Carn Brea, Carn Marth, Tregonning Hill, etc., are but the abraded stumps. Not only were they much higher, but their present roots stood 300 ft. higher than at present.

Then ensued a sinking of the land, and the Atlantic flowed into the valley to the south and joined the North Sea; and at the same time the Bristol Channel was formed. Thus the present coast was approximately outlined.

At some period shortly after, a vast inundation swept over the land from the north, and carried down the degraded granite, depositing the tin beds in the hollows. As early as 1830, Mr Carne noted: "The peculiar situation in which nearly all the stream tin of Cornwall is found is highly illustrative of the direction in which the current of the deluge swept over the surface. All the productive streams are in the valleys which open to the sea on the southern side of the Cornish peninsula; whilst most of the richest veins are situated near the northern coast."

The deposit of tin stone, or tin ground, lies directly on the shelf, or primitive surface of rock, and is carried far out in the estuaries, and overlaid by marine deposits.

In 1828, in Carnon Creek, a cairn was discovered 16 to 18 ft. below the surface, and that surface 4 to 5 ft. below low water mark. In it was a crouched skeleton. This shows that there must have been a subsidence of the land of something like 30 ft. at least since the period when man in the late stone or early bronze age inhabited Cornwall.

The submarine forests grew on the top of the tin ground. Of these many have been noted and recorded, not only on the south coast, but on the north as well. The trees were oak and hazel, alder and elm, but they never reached a large size.

Above this bed lie the raised beaches, some 40 or 50 ft. above high water mark. The tin-beds in the Cornish valleys towards the sea do not exhibit such an upheaval. Generally the raised beach rests on the original rock, and consists of rolled stones, frequently of large size, mixed with smaller gravel and sand. The "Head of Rubble," with some intervening perplexing beds of sand, may be noticed on the coast. This Head is from 40 to 50 ft. in depth. It is composed of angular fragments of rock, often large, many of quartz, with no signs of stratification. The Rubble bed in Cornwall has yielded no organic remains, but elsewhere in it have been found the bones of the mammoth, elephant, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, etc. It was not formed by the disintegration of the subjacent rocks, but by aqueous transport. It owes its origin to a powerful force of water, acting violently and rapidly. It caps the heights, and is not in the valleys where the tin ground has been deposited. It has not therefore been found to overlie it. It was due to a sudden and brief overrush of water, and the fragments of stone carried before the flood did not travel sufficiently far to have their angles rubbed down.

Perranporth Rocks

As may well be supposed, the action of the sea on the coast-line has been affected largely by the character of the rocks against which the waves have lashed themselves to foam. Where the rocks are of granite or slate, the tide and the waves have very little effect upon the outline of the coast; it is in those places where the softer rocks prevail, and where exposure to the prevalent wind induces breakers of great volume, that the loss of land by the action of the sea is greatest. In fact, the tides rarely run beyond one or two miles per hour, except round headlands, and it is where the rocks are of a yielding character that the coves and bays are formed. This is not always the case. Where the sea has found a fault in the rock it will burrow incessantly till it has bored out for itself a cavern, and the head of this falling in produces a tiny cove. The hard quartzose and trap rocks of Trevose Head, the greenstone rocks of Pentire, near Padstow, the hard slates of St Agnes, the greenstone and hardened schist of the Gurnard's Head, and the granite of the Land's End, defy the action of wave and tide. But it is otherwise where, for instance, the Head of Rubble occurs. "In Gerrans Bay it is plain that the cliffs of Head were at one time much further out than they are now. The tops of the earthy cliffs are split with cracks and miniature chasms, showing that great masses are constantly being detached by atmospheric causes, while the great heaps of earth at the foot of the cliffs show how for centuries masses of earth have rolled down from their tops on to the beach below[1]." As to the kingdom of Lyonesse, which was supposed to extend from the Land's End to beyond Scilly, it never existed in the historic or prehistoric period. Another fable that may be dismissed, is that St Michael's Mount was surrounded by a vast tract of woodland, in which were villages, and where settled hermits. It did rise above a forest, but that was in a prehistoric period. But if the sea gains on the land but imperceptibly in one way, it gains in another on the north coast, by the action of the wind carrying the sand inland, and overwhelming field after field. It is not a little curious to mark, nevertheless, how a small dribble of a stream will arrest the onward march of the sand-dunes.

At Constantine by Padstow as already said the old church is enveloped in sand-hills, so is that of St Enodoc. The Perran Sands have so encroached that they extend over a mile and a half inland and have in process of time swallowed up two churches and a village. The Gear Sands have even climbed a hill to the height of 300 ft. The Godrevy, Upton and Phillack towans have moved inland from St Ives' Bay and engulfed the residence of the ancient kings of Cornwall at Riviere.

The same phenomenon has not taken place in the south, but there the estuaries have been silted up by the wash from the stream tin works. Formerly boats could come up to Tregony. Now the Fal is choked with detritus for miles down. Restronguet creek bore vessels to Perranarworthal. Now it is completely silted up, only a trickle of water running down through desolate morasses and flats resulting from the workings of the miners.

[1] D.C. Whitley, "The Head of Rubble," in Journal of the R. Inst. of Cornwall, XVII. p. 67.

11. The Coast—Tides, Islands, and Lighthouses.

Off the mouth of the English Channel the tidal-stream is materially influenced by the indraft and outset of the channel, and is found to run northward and eastward with a falling tide at Dover, and southward and westward with a rising tide at that place. At spring tides the tide rises in Padstow Bay 22 ft., at Bude a foot higher, at the Lizard only 14½ ft., at Scilly 16 ft. Nowhere on the Cornish coast is there the enormous rise seen at St Malo, where ordinary tides rise from 23 to 26 ft., and spring tides 48 ft. above low-water mark.

On account of the varying force with which the channel and spring tides blend south of the Scilly group the stream is incessantly altering, but north of this towards the Bristol Channel, the stream becomes more regular, and while the water is ebbing at Dover, it sets northward turning sharply round Trevose Head into the Bristol Channel, and so when the tide is flowing at Dover, it is running with equal speed in ebb out of the channel and along the coast towards Scilly.

Round Island, Scilly

The Scilly Isles are the sole group of any importance around the coast. They are situated 40 miles due west from the Lizard Point and 25 west-south-west from the Land's End, and are reached by steamers from Penzance. There are now but five of the isles inhabited, St Mary's, Tresco, St Agnes, St Martin's, and Bryher. Formerly Sampson was also inhabited, but the inhabitants were removed to St Mary's. The total acreage of the islands is 3560; and the formation is granite. This group is in fact the rubbed-down stump of the last great peak of the chain running south-west from Bodmin moors. The heights in the islands are inconsiderable, but very bold and picturesque scenery is obtained among the many islets, each of which has its special character. At St Mary's is a pier built in 1835-8; and a harbour called the Pool for small craft, while further out between the islands is a good roadstead for large vessels. The Scilly Isles were noted as a resting-place for innumerable birds, some very rare, in their annual migrations, but of late years gun-practice at sea marks has scared a good many away, and they visit the islands in far fewer numbers than formerly.

The Longships Lighthouse

The coast of Cornwall is remarkably free of shoals. The only dangerous sandbank is the Doom Bar at the mouth of the Bay of Padstow; but there are shallows in Mounts Bay and other places.

Eddystone Lighthouse

Trinity House, the first general lighthouse and pilotage authority in the kingdom, was composed of a body of merchants and seamen founded in 1519 by Sir Thomas Speet, controller of the navy, when it was granted a charter by Henry VIII. Since that period the duty of erecting and maintaining lighthouses and other sea-marks has been entrusted to the Corporation by Royal Charter and Acts of Parliament. Trinity House maintains ten lighthouses about the coast of Cornwall, of which the most important, besides those of the Scilly Isles, are the Longships, white and red occulting; the Wolf rock, white and red group flash; the Lizard, white flash; the Eddystone, white flash.

12. Climate—Rainfall.

The climate of a country or district is, briefly, the average weather of that country or district, and it depends upon various factors, all mutually interacting—upon the latitude, the temperature, the direction and strength of the winds, the rainfall, the character of the soil, and the proximity of the district to the sea.

The differences in the climates of the world depend mainly upon latitude, but a scarcely less important factor is this proximity to the sea. Along any great climatic zone there will be found variations in proportion to this proximity, the extremes being "continental" climates in the centres of continents far from the oceans, and "insular" climates in small tracts surrounded by sea. Continental climates show great differences in seasonal temperatures, the winters tending to be unusually cold and the summers unusually warm, while the climate of insular tracts is characterised by equableness and also by greater dampness. Great Britain possesses, by reason of its position, a temperate insular climate, but its average annual temperature is much higher than could be expected from its latitude. The prevalent south-westerly winds cause a drift of the surface-waters of the Atlantic towards our shores, and this warm water current, which we know as the Gulf Stream, is the chief cause of the mildness of our winters.

Most of our weather comes to us from the Atlantic. It would be impossible here within the limits of a short chapter to discuss fully the causes which affect or control weather changes. It must suffice to say that the conditions are in the main either cyclonic or anticyclonic, which terms may be best explained, perhaps, by comparing the air currents to a stream of water. In a stream a chain of eddies may often be seen fringing the more steadily-moving central water. Regarding the general northeasterly moving air from the Atlantic as such a stream, a chain of eddies may be developed in a belt parallel with its general direction. This belt of eddies or cyclones, as they are termed, tends to shift its position, sometimes passing over our islands, sometimes to the north or south of them, and it is to this shifting that most of our weather changes are due. Cyclonic conditions are associated with a greater or less amount of atmospheric disturbance; anticyclonic with calms.

The prevalent Atlantic winds largely affect our island in another way, namely in its rainfall. The air, heavily laden with moisture from its passage over the ocean, meets with elevated land-tracts directly it reaches our shores—the moorland of Devon and Cornwall, the Welsh mountains, or the fells of Cumberland and Westmorland—and blowing up the rising land-surface, parts with this moisture as rain. To how great an extent this occurs is best seen by reference to the accompanying map of the annual rainfall of England, where it will at once be noticed that the heaviest fall is in the west, and that it decreases with remarkable regularity until the least fall is reached on our eastern shores. Thus in 1906, the maximum rainfall for the year occurred at Glaslyn in the Snowdon district, where 205 inches of rain fell; and the lowest was at Boyton in Suffolk, with a record of just under 20 inches. These western highlands, therefore, may not inaptly be compared to an umbrella, sheltering the country further eastward from the rain.

The above causes, then, are those mainly concerned in influencing the weather, but there are other and more local factors which often affect greatly the climate of a place, such, for example, as configuration, position, and soil. The shelter of a range of hills, a southern aspect, a sandy soil, will thus produce conditions which may differ greatly from those of a place—perhaps at no great distance—situated on a wind-swept northern slope with a cold clay soil.

The character of the climate of a country or district influences, as everyone knows, both the cultivation of the soil and the products which it yields, and thus indirectly as well as directly exercises a profound effect upon Man. The banana-nourished dweller in a tropical island who has but to tickle the earth with a hoe for it to laugh a harvest is of different fibre morally and physically from the inhabitant of northern climes who wins a scanty subsistence from the land at the expense of unremitting toil. These are extremes; but even within the limits of a county, perhaps, similar if smaller differences may be noted, and the man of the plain or the valley is often distinct in type from his fellow of the hills.

Very minute records of the climate of our island are kept at numerous stations throughout the country, relating to the temperature, rainfall, force and direction of the wind, hours of sunshine, cloud conditions, and so forth, and are duly collected, tabulated, and averaged by the Meteorological Society. From these we are able to compare and contrast the climatic conditions in various parts.

Cornwall, being so surrounded by the sea, and so peculiarly under the influence of the Gulf Stream, may be looked upon as possessing a local "insular" climate in a marked degree. The south-west wind almost invariably brings rain and warmth together, for the high cold granitic moorlands are naturally calculated to arrest these warm airs and chill them, causing thereby a downfall of the suspended water. But Cornwall does not enjoy the amount of sun heat to ripen fruit that is obtained on the east coast of England, and it is exposed to furious gales from the west. "The gale from the west," says Polwhele, "is here no gentle zephyr; instead of wafting perfume on its wings, it often brings devastation." On the north coast every tree that is exposed to it is dwarfed and bowed like a curling wave, and the foliage in spring is often cut and browned by the salt spray. Even tombstones in the churchyards on the heights have to be backed up with masonry, and the churches are low, as if cowering from the blast. According to a Cornish proverb: "There falls a shower on every week day, and there are two on a Sunday." In Scilly, however, there is more sunshine and less rain than on the mainland. The myrtle, geranium, fuchsia, and hydrangea grow luxuriantly; the red geranium at Penzance will cover the front of a house, and palms and other exotics thrive there and at Falmouth. The fields of narcissus and daffodils cultivated for the market would be more beautiful if the blooms were not systematically picked before fully open, to be sent to London. No gardens in England exhibit such a wealth of exotics as those of Tresco, Carclew, Enys and Penjerrick, and some others in the district of the Fal estuary, which seems peculiarly favourable for the growth of sub-tropical species.

In 1906, the mean temperature of England and Wales was 49·3° Fahr., while that of Cornwall was 51·2. The mean temperature of England in 1907 was 48·5, of Cornwall 50·6. But there exists a considerable difference between north and south. At Redruth it was in 1906, 50·1, whereas at Truro it was nine degrees higher.

The east wind prevails in October and is strong in March, the south-east in June, the south-west is felt in every month save April, but very little in December. The west wind is most prevalent in August, least so in May. The north wind predominates in December and July.

The rainfall chart here given shows that Cornwall lies for the most part in an area where from 40 to 60 inches are annually recorded, though a strip of the north coast from St Ives to Padstow and again from Boscastle to the northern limit of the county shows a fall of less than 40 inches. This is because the uplands have robbed the rainclouds of a considerable portion of their contents, and accordingly it is on these high moorlands that we find the greatest rainfall. Thus on the moors between Launceston and Bodmin from 60 to 80 inches fall, and even this latter figure is exceeded in the neighbourhood of Rough Tor and Brown Willy.

From observations taken at the Royal Institution of Cornwall at Truro, from 1850 to 1881 it appears that the rainiest months are November and December, and next to them January and July; April and May are the least rainy.

13. People—Race, Dialect, Population.

The original population of Cornwall would seem to have been what is now commonly called Ivernian, the same as Iberian, the underlying race everywhere in Western Europe from the western isles of Scotland to Gibraltar. When the Romans invaded and conquered Spain, they found there already in the east the Celts and in the west the Iberians, and they designated the more or less fused population, Celtiberians. So in Cornwall, there was this dark-haired, dusky-skinned race, and the Brythons, Celts, of the people of the Dumnonii. There were extensive settlements by Irish in the Land's End district, the Lizard, and along the north coast, in 490-510, owing to the expulsion of the Ossorians and the Bairrche from their lands in Ireland. The Saxon also crossed the Tamar and peaceably settled in East Cornwall.

The language spoken was Brythonic, akin to, and originally identical with Welsh and that spoken in Lower Brittany. It was distinct in some points from the Goidelic of Ireland, the Isle of Man, and the Highlands of Scotland. The main difference was that the C in the latter became P in the former. Thus Ken or Cen in such names as Kenmare and Ciaran would in Cornish become Penmare and Piran.

In the reign of Edward I, Cornish was spoken in the south Hams of Devonshire, but in the sixteenth century it was dying out even in West Cornwall. Norden, writing in 1580, says: "Of late the Cornish men have much conformed themselves to the use of the English tongue, and their English is equal to the beste, especially in the eastern partes.... In the weste parte of the countrye, in the hundreds of Penwith and Kirrier, the Cornishe tongue is most in use amongste the inhabitants." At Menheniot about 1540 the Creed and the Lord's Prayer were first taught the people in English. In 1678, at Landewednack, the last Cornish sermon on record was preached. In the reign of George III (1777) died Dolly Pentreath, the last to speak the language.

Two modern Cornish dialects exist. That in the east very naturally is assimilated to the Devonshire; but in the west it has formed itself in comparatively recent times. The more common prefixes of names of places are: — Tre an enclosure or homestead, Lan also an enclosure for a church, Ty a dwelling, Bod a habitation, Chy a house, Pol a pool, Pen a head, Huel or Wheal a mine, Ros a moor, Men a stone, B[=a]l a mine, Bos is a corruption of Bod and is sometimes reduced to Bo; Car stands for Caer a fortress; Dun has the same signification. Burn stands for Bron a hill, Camborne should be Cambron, the crooked hill; Cara is Carreg a rock, and this is often found cut down to Car; Carn is a cairn or heap of stones or mass of rock; Enys or Innis an island or peninsula. Fenter occurring in many combinations is fenten a well or spring; Goon is the Welsh Waun a grassy down; Hal is a moor, Parc an enclosure, Dinas a chieftain's castle, Lis a court of justice.

It is possible that certain river names may derive from the original tongue of the earliest race. Some seem to be more akin to Goidelic than Brythonic dialect, as Fal (Gaelic foill, slow), and Fowey (Gaelic fobhaidh, swift); but there are not sufficient of these to assure us that the Goidels preceded the Brythons in Cornwall.

In East Cornwall there must have been a considerable influx of Saxon settlers, for there we light upon such names of places as are compounded with ton the home-farm, worth and worthy a fortified settlement, stoke, stow, sto a stockade, an earthwork surmounted by a defence of posts; ham a meadow by the waterside. In West Cornwall such names are few.

Miners: Camborne

The people are courteous and kindly, and very independent. In South Africa, whither many thousand miners have migrated, they are not popular, and are fain to disguise whence they come by pretending to hail from Furness. The reason is that the Cornish cling together and do not care to associate with others, and that they lack that breadth of sympathy which makes men give up their time and devote their energies to the common good. The Cornish miner cares nothing for the country and for those among whom he has placed himself, if only in three years he may have made enough money to return home to his wife and children. He does not go out to settle, and this explains the lack of interest he has in what interests and concerns the colony.

The Cornish are a broad-shouldered race, above the average in stature, and it is stated that west country regiments, when drawn up on parade, cover a greater space of ground than would those of other counties, the numbers being equal.

The census of 1901 gives as the population of the administrative county 322,334 persons, of whom 149,937 were males and 172,397 were females. There had been an increase in the number of males since 1891, and a decrease in the number of females. Of inhabited houses there were 72,660. The population of Cornwall in 1801 was 192,281, and it went on increasing steadily to 1861, but from that date it has been as steadily on the decrease. In military barracks there were 629 officers and men, in naval barracks 90, and on H.M. ships in home waters 2053; in workhouses 1308, in prison 75.

In 1901 there were 21,335 marriages, 88,636 births, and 55,790 deaths. There were 6434 wives whose husbands were absent, either at sea or mining in South Africa or South America. In agriculture 23,671 were engaged, in fishing 3734, in mining 13,426; in building and carpentering 9667. Of the 149,937 males enumerated in the county of Cornwall, 128,184 were natives of the county, 8007 had come from Devonshire, and there were resident in Cornwall 976 foreigners. Of blind there were 447, of deaf and dumb 163, of lunatics 798, of imbeciles 516.

Whereas the number of people to the square mile in England is 558, that in Cornwall is only 230.

It must, however, be born in mind that the Administrative County and the Geographical County are not coextensive. Thus, parts of the Registration County of Cornwall are in the Administrative County of Devon, such are Broadwood Widger, Northcott, North Petherwin, St Giles in the Heath, Virginstow and Werrington, with a total population of 2460 persons; and on the other hand parts of the Administrative County of Cornwall are in the Registration County of Devon; these are Calstock and North Tamerton with a population of 6203 persons.

Thus the population and acreage in 1901 in the Registration County would be, population 318,591, acreage 886,384, but in the Geographical or Administrative County the population would be in the same year 322,334 and the acreage 868,208.

14. Agriculture—Main Cultivations. Stock.

The lack of hot sunshine makes Cornwall an unsuitable county for cereals, but the mildness of the climate and the rainfall render it on the other hand favourable for dairy produce and for stock.

"First and Last House", Land's End

A recent writer, Mr W.H. Hudson, in his book on the Land's End, thus describes a Cornish farm. He speaks of the neighbourhood of Penrith, but the description applies to many other parts of the Duchy, though not to East Cornwall, where it is scarcely applicable at all, and is precisely the part where there exists least of the Celtic and most of the English element. "Life on these small farms is incredibly rough. One may guess what it is like from the outward aspect of such places. Each, it is true, has its own individual character, but they are all pretty much alike in their dreary, naked, and almost squalid appearance. Each, too, has its own ancient Cornish name, some of them very fine and pretty, but you are tempted to rename them in your own mind Desolation Farm, Dreary Farm, Stony Farm, etc. The farmhouse is a small, low place, and invariably built of granite, with no garden, or bush, or flower about it. The one I stayed at was a couple of centuries old, but no one had ever thought of growing anything, even a marigold, to soften its bare, harsh aspect. The house itself could hardly be distinguished from the outhouses clustered around it. Several times on coming back to the house in a hurry, and not exercising proper care, I found I had made for a wrong door, and got into the cow-house or pig-house, or a shed of some sort, instead of into the human habitation. The pigs and fowls did not come in, but were otherwise free to go where they liked. The rooms were very low; my hair, when I stood erect, just brushed the beams; but the living room or kitchen was spacious for so small a house, and had the wide old open fireplace still so common in this part of the country. Any other form of fireplace would not be suitable where the fuel consists of furze and turf."

But it must be allowed that the large landed proprietors have everywhere built commodious, though almost invariably ugly, new farmhouses.

Considering the vast extent of grass land there is in Cornwall, and the amount of butter, cream, and milk derived therefrom, it has become more and more clear to thinking farmers that the pasture is becoming exhausted, its feeding powers worn out, and that they must replenish the soil with the lime and phosphates that have been taken out of it to nourish and rear the cattle. The consequence is, that of late years the more intelligent farmers are largely employing artificial, i.e. chemical manures, and the results have been most satisfactory. You cannot eat your cake and have it. If you take so much annually out of the ground you must put in an equivalent annually, or you exhaust the soil; and animal manure is not sufficient. In the country a great deal of turf and furze is burnt, where there is proximity to the moors. The writer just quoted says: "in some parts of Cornwall they have good peat, called 'pudding turves,' which makes a hot and comparatively lasting fire. In the Land's End district they have only the turf taken from the surface, which makes the poorest of all fires, but it has to serve. But to make a blaze and get any warmth furze was burnt. In a few moments the dry stuff would ignite and burn with a tremendous hissing and crackling, the flames springing up to a height of seven or eight feet in the vast hollow chimney. For a minute or two the whole big room would be almost too hot, and lit up as by a flash of lightning. Then the roaring flames would sink and vanish, leaving nothing but a bed of grey ashes, jewelled with innumerable crimson and yellow sparks, rapidly diminishing."

The total acreage under crops and grass in 1908 was 608,691; of these 356,497 acres were arable land, the rest, 252,194 acres, permanent grass: 17,120 acres grew wheat, 30,696 barley, and 66,033 oats; 4441 acres grew potatoes, 15,271 turnips and swedes, 11,528 mangold, 8059 rape, and 1658 small fruit. Of small fruit culture just over 621 acres were devoted to strawberries, nearly 276 to raspberries and nearly 553 to currants and gooseberries. Apples were grown on 4865 acres, cherries on 199, plums on 182.

The number of horses used for agricultural purposes was 25,706. The total of horses, colts and unbroken, was 34,821. Of cattle there were 219,890, and of these 59,298 were cows in milk. The total number of sheep was 410,055, and that of pigs 104,813. Of mountain and heath land used for grazing there were 71,438 acres. In Cornwall there are 9249 acres of coppice and 22,197 of other woods, but no more than 981 of plantations. While 548,787 acres are tended by tenants, only 59,904 acres are occupied by the owners. Whereas in Surrey the percentage of those occupying their own land is 33 per cent., that in Cornwall is 9·7, in Devon 10·9, and in Hampshire 24·4.

In Cornwall, in 1908, the number of agricultural holders above one acre but not exceeding five was 2859; of those above five and not exceeding 50, there were 6810. Of those above 50 and not exceeding 300 acres there were 3682, but of those holding more than 300 acres there were but 118, whereas in Essex there were 564, in Suffolk 540, in Hampshire 595, in Wiltshire 660 and in Northumberland 731.

Of late years, especially in the Scilly Isles, flower gardening, the growth of narcissus, jonquils, daffodils, and various sorts of lilies, also of violets, anemones, and marguerites, has been carried on with great success, and the produce is carried by steamer and train to London and other large towns.

During six months in the year, when and where the flower culture prevails, it forms the staple of conversation in parsonage, manor house, farm, and cottage. From January until May men, women, and children are directly or indirectly engrossed in this one labour. The bulbs are moved at least once in three or four years. Left longer, they decrease in size, and become weakly; the flowers also degenerate. A suitable manure is at hand, the kelp washed up by the sea costing nothing but the labour of gathering and transporting.

Flower Farming, Scilly

Anyone standing in a field which is in full bloom and waiting to be picked over, would think that the men have a hopeless task to face, if they purpose gathering all their flowers. But they move down the beds swiftly, snapping the stems, and throwing the flowers into big baskets, which are carried off to the homestead as they fill, and in an incredibly short time the beds are thinned. When the baskets are brought into the farmhouse they are emptied, and if the weather has been wet and stormy the flowers are packed roughly into pots and pans of every description, and set on shelves to dry off and assume their proper colour. If the weather has been fine this preliminary toilet is dispensed with, and the girls and women bunch and tie at once. Twelve stems go to a bunch always, and the aim is to arrange the flowers so that they shall present a compact lozenge shape, crisp and tight. Varieties are never mixed when tied, the bunches are passed on to another department, where the uneven stems are sliced off, and the flowers set in water to await packing.

Packing the flowers is a serious business. The boxes are lined with paper, little pillows are made for the flowers to rest upon, and then the bunches are deftly laid, so many this way, so many that, and a few in the centre, and behold, stems are altogether hidden, and only a mass of bloom fills the box. The end papers are turned in, a ticket placed on the top, declaring the variety of flower and the number of bunches; the cover is nailed down, and the operation is complete.

15. Industries and Manufactures.

Cornwall is too far from the coalfields to be a manufacturing county on a large scale. There are, however, some few industries and manufactures carried on in Cornwall. The wonderful wireless telegraphy installation which Mr Marconi has established at Poldhu does not, perhaps, strictly speaking, come under this head, but it would be impossible to omit mention of it and of the great services it daily renders to vessels crossing the Atlantic.

Poldhu Hotel and the Marconi Station

A considerable industry is in the making of casks, mainly for the exportation of pilchards. Woollen manufacture is carried on in a small way, also the construction of mining and other machinery. Shipbuilding occupies about 870 men. Some brick-making is done, but not to any considerable extent. The real employments supplying the vast majority of the people with bread are mining and quarrying, and agriculture and horticulture.