The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1892-07-10
VAKEMANS WANDERINGS
A TRAMP THROUGH coRNwALL-II.

c. pe.crted Mine stacks-Nov-
..,r,ne Rob"-Growder and Grow
dor Sellers Roadside Games and
Strange Old Customs.
downright. 1907 by Edgar L. wakeman-l
CpowAg. Cornwall, June 13.-Whatever
Wesley and Whitfield. with the railway,
the newspaper and the telegraph, may
have done in altering the every DAY lives
Of the Cornish folk, no power has yet
been able 10 Danish the endeared wraiths
If the mysticisms and mysteries OF a
Iegendarjlv heroic past. Today, as firmly
os eve centuries since the inner heart OF
Tho Cornish man clings to his "droii' or
tale Of giant hobgoblin and fairy with the
Greatest tenacity: and few OF these are
Interesting by way of Illustration. Belle
rian was formerly the name OF Lana
End. AZ also the name Of mighty giant
who made il his home. Cormoran bullt
St. Michael's mount, but was siam py the
redoubtable Jack the Giant Killer. Holt
burn Of the Cairn defended ordinary NOR
tals from other giants than himself. The
Giant Of Nancledry principally subsisted
unon little children. The giant Trebig-
gan frightened bad children into virtuous
lives, and dined off the incorrigible ones,
which he usually fried upon fat rock by
his cave door. The giant Blunderbus,
killed by little Tom Hickathrift with n
cart axle, was the embodiment OF surly
laziness and cruel greed. The giant
Wrath. terror Of the coast, walked out to
sea dozen miles or so, and, fastening the
fshermens boats 10 his girdle. strolled
Ieisurely back TO his cave to serve his pris-
oners up for food at will
To all Cornish folk these monsters still
live in freside tales, and the numberless
monuments 20 pagan past scattered over
the rocky tors and wild moors, such as the
cromlechs, monoliths and other rude stone
monuments, are the household goods and
pastime implements of this vanished but
not vanuuished race Every hill or crag
has its cairn or cromlech; every gorge or
glen its ghost or goblin. The knowledge
of all this takes firm possession OF the
wanderer through Cornwall.
If these were not enough 10 keep alive
all manner of weird superstitions. the
chimneys Of the deserted mines Of Corn
wall alone would furnish sufficient grew
some influence to of itself create and foster
spooks enough for an entire people.
Away back In the vicinity of Liskeard
they began TO loom darkly upon the land
scape. From this place they are every
where seen. increasing in numbers as the
Redruth district is approached, and de-
creasing in frequency toward st. Ives and
Penzance. From the top Of some high
Cornish hill what seems to be hundreds
can be seen, and on the road between Red
ruth and Camborn, distance Of but five
miles, counted upward Of forty "knack-
ed" or abandoned mine stacks.
They usually comprise the towerlike
chimney, the old engine room and the lofty
bob shaft. Indescribable sterility and
dreariness encompass them. Not even
furze will grow upon the poor dirt" and
"churksn or mine refuse around them.
DAVIS chatter in their tops. The wind
means through the rotting chimneys.
Weird tales, superstitions and whispers Of
tragedies are associated with them. |
often turn aside TO the dreariest of these
places. In one found half dead English
tramp. with his half starved wife who had
lust given birth 20 a child. Here was real
4
left them a little money, sent a member Of
the mounted constabulary TO them and
went on my way, but now see ghastly
faces through the crumbling walls of every
other "knacked" mine stack that looms in
sight.
Moving "nine bob' Is one Of the curl
Gus performances in the Cornish mining
districts happened to witness. Turning
from hill lane into wide highway / saw
n great concourse of people following an
enormous truck drawn by at least twenty
teams of shaggy Welsh horses. Joining
Che crowd found that Cornish folk had
come from miles around to see the mine
bob movin." This "mine bob" is the
great beam. the hugest piece in all huge
Cornish mining machinery, which works
like a steamer beam, the man engine and
the mine pumps. This one weighed up
ward of 1l8 tons A mine had been aban-
doned; new one was being opened by the
same company, and from the great forge
works at Hayle had come this iron truck
forty feet long, with steel wheels like an
engine drivers, on which the tremendous
casting WAS being conveyed. The earnest
interest of miners, "Kepens" (captains)
and engineers who accompanied the pom
derous beam; the curious excitement Of
hundreds of stragglers drawn together by
the event, and the mischievous prayers OF
Cornish boys that something would scat"
or break, 20 increase the anxieties and ten
sion of the OCCASION, here very great owing
To the billy nature of Cornish roads, fur
nished most interesting opportunity for
character study, The greatest parsonage
on all the road that day was the teamster
who drove those forty Welsh horses Like
the boys envied him, and marveled with
them at his handling Of his whip, his pow
erful lungs and his glib and urgent tongue.
The marvellous whiteness of all Cornish
housewives floors, tables, chests and
chairs have been my constant admiration.
/ learned the secret on recent Friday
which day of every week is "growder
day" in Cornwall. You will see number
less donkey carts hurrying up and down
the hilly highways or hating before vii
lage doors They are filled with some light
and pumicslike substance dug from near
hillside pits, and are in charge of women,
CHEEKY and stout and half dressed az men,
or of boys already full of shrill whistling
and the quiet philosophy of older trades
men.
stopped one Of these boys with smile,
sixpence and the question:
what have you in your carti" my lad.
"Doan't Q knaaw, your Load O. grow.
der, my SON"
"Growderi What is it for, my ladi"
"Scroobin foars, my SON."
"What do you get for it?"
"Same oil drug-hap'ny a tub" And