The record-union., 1892-06-18

ured Cornwall has been TO the remainder
of England veritable terra incognita.
"West Barbary' it was contemptuously
called to describe its uncanniness, its
supposed ignorance and its popularity ac-
credited semi-barbarism. What weird
and desolate Connamara, in Ireland's
wild west, is aud has always been to the
Green Isle, this SCARED and rugged PEN
insula has been TO England.
OF its 100000 souls, one-tenth, from
youth to death, in darkness pick and
blast in shift and drift beneath its wind
swept moors. Until century since a
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; but,
again to-day, not league from these
towns, among fisher-folkS, miners and
peasants, an ordinary EngliShman or
American can scarcely understand a word
uttered. \ ct here are life and scenes of
the greatest fascination, both life and
scene of simplicity, beauty and grandeur
while romance and legend glow Won
orously In every tor, comDe and stream,
romance and legend the oldest and most
winsome in all England. Here lived, or
were born to deathless legend, Arthur,
Launcelot and Guinevere, and the brave
old Round Table knights.
1t Is d curious shaped bit of land this
rugged old Cornwall. Its geographic
contour suggests the strange silhouette of
some couchant gigantic mastitf or huge
wild beast. 1t Is easy to see in its south
ernmost outreaching its two powerful
fore feet. IN its northern coast line will
be found It's braced and briStling back
IN It's most northern projection will be
seen an erect and defiant tail. In its east
ern Deyonshire boundary are it's massive
launches and hind feet wedged against
the eternal granite of Devon. And its
furthermost sea-split, ocean battling
promontOry is the open mouth OF the
stone leviathan, set savagely toward the
sesthing Scilly Isles forever lashed with
spume and fume of its ipterminable bat
ties with the Atlantic.
Were you to stand, as [ have done, on
Hensbarrow, one of its drear and highest
peaks, you could see smiling Devon to
the east; almost to Lands End its farth-
est westward wall; to Lizard Head it's
remotest southern headland; across its
entire reach OF hills ana 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
ali mariners beacons, the splendid Eddy
stone Lighthouse.
But standing on that spot little else
than apparent desolation meets the eve.
The moorlands stretch dolorously as if in
boundless loneliness. The tors or hills
are bleak and bare. The whole face Of
nature seems torn and SCARED as if by
tremendous elemental struggles. Yet all
these caVernS and chaSmS which diStigure
IL We're made by the hand Of man. Its
granite, shale and slate hide copper, tin
and iron. For more than $500 years its
surface has been cleft and its depths gored
hDra1 11r,tiI tG faoa nc -,
extinct volcanoes, whose bases were hon
eycombed, sometimes to q miles depth,
aud, often laterally so, far outward be-
meath the ocean, that its very shell was
cracked broken, until, 10 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 sum-
mer, and nearly all winter, are never
ending surprises Of scenic beauty. In
deed the entire south English and Irish
Coasts are almost semi-tropic lands
Semi-tropic bits Of land surely can be
found, for l have seen at Bournemouth,
at Iorquay and at Plymouth, in Eng
land; at Truro, Falmouth and Penzance
in Cornwall, and at Youghal, alongside
tD4l w htASl iNdiCiSJ OltS uOllS III Ire
land, roses in full bloom and luXuriantly
foliaged myrtle out of doors in midwin-
ter.
Along the way am leisurely tramping,
with the English Channel nearly always
IN sight, are innumerable Cornish val
leys of slumberOus beauty. Tiny burns
and combes are cut through the walls by
the sea. Through every one limpid
streams so singing and tumbling to the
ocean. Along the valley sides are white
h2nlets, or the quaint old homes, the
rich acres and the sleek herds OF the
thrifty farmers Of Cornwall.
Tramp these coast roads but q mile, and
you will suddenly stumble upon these
lovely vales-the stream, the farms half
hidden 10y generous foliage dotting the
sides far up the combe as eve can reach:
here a rumoling old mill; there nesting
church; below you quaint old village;
beyond, the tiny haven skirted by the
homes Of fishers, and specked by odd old
fishers crafts; further q tide ploWinG
up between massive haven walls. or a
stretch of low-tide rock and drift, and, at
last, the bright blue sea. Beautiful scenes
are these Tor 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.
Just before you pass from DeYonshire
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 lodged in plymouth,
though admitting that he had never
crossed the lamar, commiSeratingly VEN
turned the sympathetic remark that he'd
he blessed If he wouldn't prefer White
chapel TO Cornwall.
IVY. m them Cousin Jacks knows
nowt but tin, he added with flourish
'Niggar blood in 'em too, they do saw
Black as pit-mouth, 'alf on 'em. An
blessed if you'll get nowt feat better N
'oggans m taggans from Saltash to Land S
Hend.''
His words were true as to the dark
compilations of most of the Cornish peo-
pie. In miles distance of Devonsbire
you are among another race of men than
the tair-faced phlegmatic English. Faces
are everywhere seen OF a distinct Eastern
type, and surely Eastern blood, whether
Jewish, from the Jewish mine-owners of
thousand years ago, or from the Phue-
nician traders of an earlier period, is still
rich in Cornish veins. 1t gives here and
there the waXen olive skin, almost lni-
veFsally the glossy black curling hair and
dark eyes, and statures short, compact
and shapely.
No people in the world are more clan
nish, or more resent encroachment bv
marriage or in social and business affairs
than the Cornish. Their olden Ianouage
superstitions and traditions are all Celtic
They are impassioned, impulsive and ex-
citable as are all Celts; bat they possess y
dumb patience, an aggressive defensiye-
ness against innovation and an humb1a
and steadlast thrift which reveals some
thing like the Jewish strain
Their ways are rough, and Cornish
manners are the frankest and sinceresf of
any people I have ever been among.
They comprise simply meaning what
you say and saying what you mean.
whatever the subject or occasion. Ali
this. too. with absolute unconseiousness
of affront. Between Polperro and Ian