Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-05

presence of the coast to the lover of nature
on foot Antiquity, historic spot and brave
old legend being dearthful in this sublime
reach of frowning coast, another pleasing
feature of Cornwall gives zest and interest.
A PRETTY PASTORAL PICTURE.
Whatever may be the dreary effect upon
the traveller of the dismal downs and barren
tors along the rocky backbone of Cornwall,
there are never-ending surprises of beauty
for constant repayment. Toward st. Georges
Channel at the northwest and the English
Channel at the southwest, innumerable val
leys and tiny burns slope toward and cut
through the walls by the sea, every one dis
charging limpid streams, which 60 whirling,
foaming or singing to the sea. Along the
sides of these lovely combes are the quaint
old homes the rich acres, the ample ricks of
grain and the sleek herds of the hearty,
happy farmers of Cornwall. Tramp these
desolate coast roads but mile you suddenly
stumble upon these lovely vales-the stream,
the farms half hidden by glorious foliage
dotting the sides far up the combe as eve can
reach; here a rumbIing old mill; there
nesting church; below you a quaint old
village; beyond, the tiny haven skirted by
the homes of fishers and specked by queer
up between massive haven walls, or
stretch of low-tide rock and drift; and at
last the bright blue sea. Beautiful scenes
are these for the eye and heart-mind to
dwell upon; hardly to be found in such
number and winsomeness anywhere else
upon all of England's coast
Down over a dull, stony road you sud-
denly come upon what appears to be the
busy back yard of some odd little village
inn, and you have arrived at England's
famous Lands End. This little inn, chiefly
a refectory for briefly tarrying travellers, en-
joys at least the distinction of two suggestive
and humorous signs. On the landward side
from which you approach you may read in
good Gothic lettering, "Last Inn in En-
gland"
STILL ANOTHER FIRST INN.
Fifty feet away, on the seaward side of
the house, as if in assertive notice to the
whole Western hemisphere. there is the
equally significant sign, "First Inn in En-
gland" After getting your food and pay
ing your bill here, you cannot forget these
two inn signs. There is little green plateau
in front of the inn. The extremity of this
is the last of English mainland toward
America. In calm or storm Lands End is
wild, forbidding spot And not a week
passes when there is not doietul wreck and
loss of life
You are now upon the southern coast of
Cornwall. The clif-walk between Lands
End and the great Logan or rocking stone is
the finest in all England for coast scenery,
and the whole sublime sweep of headland,
promontory, seething clif.bases, spume-
swept, rocky islets, with picturesque coves
and colorful bits of life in fishing craft, tiny
wharves and fower-embedded fishers huts
Tor all that distance are constantly before |
you; while the grandeur of the sea, which
in calmest weather beats upon the cliffs in
mountainous ground swells, although SEEM |
ing calm beneath the horizon, is such as 1 |
have never elsewhere seen
You are soon at lovely, leafv, Penzance,
where semi-tropical verdure is seen the year
round, where the English invalids come in |
hundreds, where the olden smugglers, pi-
rates and wreckers were; but as it is high |
priced, ,priggish and ''o'er-airish, you tramp |
on to little Narration, from where the |
ancient Hebrews, as traders, supplied the |
Phenicians with the precious Cornish tin |
1t is but fishing port now, noted with |
St Ives for fshwiyes and pitchers" the |
pilchards of Cornish fishing fame.
HOW THEY TAKE PILcHARDs.
The fishermen of Cornwall, everywhere |
acknowledged as the bravest and hardest in |
the British Isles, not only ply their vocation |
on the southwest Irish coast, among the Heb |
rides, and for all deep-sea fish, through in |
calculable danger around the ever-howling |
Cornish coast but find their chief profit here |
at st. Ives, across the peninsula at Mara
zion, and further to the northeast in Meya-
gissey Bay, in pilchard seining.
Pilchards resemble the herring, but are
smaller, rounder and oilier. "Huers'' or
watchers stand constantly at the st. Ives far
thest headlands, and signal the approach of
"pilcher schulls," as they call them, the
reddish and ripply appearance of the water
betraying their presence. The dead old town
suddenly awakens, and from 5000 to 4, 600
excited souls can be seen at doors, windows.
in the streets, and launching the unwleldly
seine boats. These and all gear are owned
in partnership, but each boat must take its
regular turn"
From 200 to 500 hogsheads are taken at
ordinary catches; though In 1851, 5.555 hogs
heads, or IL, 600, 900 pilchards were secured
at one haul, the largest ever taken at ST.
Ives. Hundreds of women and maidens,
scme wondrous types of rugged beauty. are
in "bulking the pitchers" on the
docks; that is sandwiching them between
layers of salt in dark cellars, amid Bapelbec
screeching for salt and fish.
After this draining and curing thew are
'layered" in hogshesds, the oil pressed ont
Of them, saved and sold; and the product is
shipped to the Adriatic ports for Leuten
food. Thus the Cornish fisher folk, nine
tenths of whom are Wesleyan Methodists.
annually drink hearty toast to the Pope;
and, because the Spaniards imagine the fish
are smoked and call them fumados the term
has been transformed into "fair maids"
and the pitchers, without which there is
always great want and suffering, have for
centuries been known at old St. Ives as the
Fair Maids of Cornwall that always feed
and clothe the poor"
EDGAR L. WAKEMAN.