Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-06-17
TRAMP IN CORNWALL.
4 Country Dreary in Its Aspect but
Full of Enhancing Nooks.
ORIGIN OF THE CORNISH FOLK.
Their Race Characteristics as They Strike
Edgar l. Wakeman.
ROADSIDE INCIDENTS AND SCENES
GIN OF THE CORNISH FOLK.

CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DISPATCH,


it was contemptuously called to describe it
uncanniness, its supposed ignorance and it
popularly accredited semi-barbarism. Wha
weird and desolate Connamara, in Ireland
wild West, is and has always been to tn
Green Isle, this SCARED and ragged PENN
sula has been to England.
Of its 400, 900 souls, one-tenth, from
youth to death, in darkness pick and bias
in shift and drift beneath its wind-swepi
moora Until century since distinct
language, the Cornubian Celtic, was spoken
taught and preached. To-day in some OF
the larger towns "the purest English
spoken" is said to prevail; bu t again to-day
not league from these towns, among fisher
folks, miners and peasants, an ordin airy
Englishman or American can scarcely un.
derstanG q word uttered. Yet here are life
and scene of the greatest fascination; both
life and scene of simplicity, beauty and
grandeur; while romance and legend glow
wondrously in every tor, combe and stream;
romance and legend the oldest and most
wInsome in all England. Here lived, or were
born to deathIess legend, Arthur, Launcelot
and Guinevere, and the brave old Round
Table knights
Geographic Oddities of Cornwall.
1t is curious shaped bit OF land, this
tour suggests the strange silhouette of some
couchant gigantic mastiff, or huge wild
beast 1t is easy to see in its southernmost
outreaching, its two powerful fore feet In
its northern coast line will be found its
braced and bristling back. In its most
northern projection will be seen an erect
and defiant tail In its eastern Devonshire
boundary are its massive launches and hind
feet wedged against the eternal granite OF
Devon. And its furthermost seasplit,
ocean-battling promontory, is the open
mouth of the stone leviathan, set savagely
toward the seething Scilly Isles, forever
lashed with spume and fume of its inter-
minable battles with the Atlantic
Were you to stand, as 1 have done, on
Hensbarrow, one of its drear and highest
peaks, you could see smiling Devon to the
east; almost to Landsend its farthest
westward wall; to Lizard Head, its remotest
southern headland; across its entire reach
of hills and moorlands, far out upon ST.
Georges Channel to the northwest and
over the white sails of fisher and coaster to
the southeast even to the dim cone of that
most wondrous of all mariners beacons, the
splendid Eddystone Lighthouse
But standing on that spot little else than
apparent desolation meets the eye. The
moorlands stretch dolorously as if in bound
less loneliness. The tors or hills are bleak
and bare. The whole face of nature seems
torn and SCARED, as if by tremendous ele-
mental struggles. Yet all these caverns
and chasms which dIsfgure it were made by
the hand of man. Its granite, shale and
slate hide copper, tin and iron.
Work of Long Extinct Volcanoes.
For more than 5000 years its surface has
been cleft and its depths gored and bored
until its face is pitted as if with extinct
volcanoes, whose bases were honeycombed,
sometimes to a miles depth, and, often
laterally, SO far outward beneath the ocean,
that its very shell was cracked and broken,
until, to prevent the sea dropping through,
the bottom was stuffed and plugged and
soldered like leaky old basin.
This is what you will see and feel and
know among the downs and tors along the
rocky backbone of Cornwall. But along the
north coast, in summer, and everywhere
upon the south coast in summer, and nearly
all winter, are never-ending surprises of
scenic beauty. Indeed the entire south
English and Irish coasts are almost semi
tropic lands Semi-tropic bits of land surely
can be found; for I have seen at Bourne
mouth, at Torquay and at Plymouth, in
England, at Truro, Falmouth and Penzance
in Cornwall, and at Youghal, alongside Sir
Walter Raleigh's old home, in Ireland,
roses in full bloom and luxuriantly foliaged
myrtle, out of doors in mid-winter.
Along the way am leisurely trampinp,
WITH the English Channel nearly always in |
sight, are innumerable Cornish valleys of |
slumberous beauty. Tiny burns and |
combes are cut through the walls by the
sea- Through every one limped streams 60 |
singing and tumbling to the ocean. Along
the valley sides are white hamlets, or the |
quaint old homes, the rich acres and the
sleek herds of the thrifty farmers of Corn |
wall
Lovely Wales on Every Hand.
Tramp these coast roads but mile, and |
you will suddenly stumble upon these
lovely vales-the stream, the farms half |
hidden by generous foliage dotting the
sides far up the combe as eye can reach: |
here rumbling old mill; there a nesting
church; below you quaint old village;
beyond. the tiny haven skirted BY the |
homes OF fishers, and speckled by odd old |
hshers' crafts; further tide ploughing 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 eve and heart-mind to dwell upon;
hardly to be found in such number and win |
someness anywhere else upon all of Eng
lands coast
Just before you pass from Devonshire into |
cornwall you will find most intense the |
English suspicion that Cornish folk are a |
sort OF barbarians. The landlord of the |
little inn where 1 lodged in Plymouth, |
hough admitting that be had never crossed |
he lamar, commiseratingly ventured the |
remark that he'd be blessed if |
lie wouldn't prefer WhitechapeI to Corn
vail.
"wy, n them Cousin Jacks knows nowt
,ut tin" he added with a flourish. "Nig-
ar blood in 'em too, they do say. Black as
QUILL get nowt t'eat better m 'oggans m
aggans, from Saltash to Lands Hend."
No people in the world are more clannish,
II more resent encroachment by marriage
II in social and business affairs, than the
cornish. Their olden language, supersti-
ions and traditions are all Celtic They
re impassioned, impulsive, and excitable
S are all Celts; but they possess a dumb
atience, an aggressive defensiveness
gainst innovation and an humble and
teadtast thrift which reveals something
Ike the Hebrew strain.
"A Frank and Sincere Folk.
Their ways are rough, and Cornish man
ers are the frankest and sincerest of any
eople have ever been among. They COM
rise simply meaning what you say and say
lg what you mean, whatever the subject
r occasion. All this, too, with absolute
Of affront Between Pol
erro and Lanlarue youth gave me help
long the way in his donkey cart laden with
and. thanked him heartily on alighting.
cooking at me squarely in the face he
sked:
"Wusent aw gimme sumpn for .h' feer,
~ son?'
He got a sixpence for the fair, for which