Year: 1862

\ STORY OF TIE CORNISH NiEt ktRS-


Some dozen wears ago. before the railways
no,y tlrobbinn ike arteries through the land,
were in existence | went with two friends 10
lodge in Cornwall The place was the most re-
tired ever saw. far removed trom tlie~ cr2sS
country road and only reached by ycnturing o.
yer a track-for II could not even he called :,
path-winding along the edges Of cliffs often
two or three hundred feet above the beach, II
was a place to delight all whose fortune had car
ried them within sight Of it.


The southern end of the bay closed in 4 steep
slope Of living green, caused by q landslip, IN
which the turf had slid down like q veil TO hide
the ruin it left behind, Of which nothing was
seen from the beach but a back ground OF tow
erino rocks Like some old Norman castle, we
fancicd them still resisting step by step the adj
vance of decay. IT was near this southern point
,hat the traces OF former lawless doIngs were
still 10 be seen. \ small hole apparently only
z fox den, led into n cave where thousand kegs
of French brandy had often been stored in a
single night


We were anxious to learn whether the tales
we had heard OF Cornish wrcckcrs were true,
and il was some qucstioningo on this subject which
drew from the old miller the following story:


i can't say never heere OF such things, but
I never seed no such doiugs myself have Iiy-
cd here. man and bov, these seventy years, he
said. .manv and many's the night we've been
watching ON these bleak cliffs for chance to
helm the moor creatures as had only frail plank
between them and death Scores OF lrycs I've
seed saved. hut never one took; no, not even the
hru+e beast that came to the shore from all the
muItitudcs of wrecks Eve seed am not going
to say that when the ships, poor things, are all
broken up and the timbers come ashore III not
clear TO say, there is not some small matter rs
never gets reported TO the kings man. Little
blame those that take it. for, rs the Lord above
knows. believe it is more the fault of those that
keep back the honest dues for the salvage.


Il remember in the time that barwood," and
he pointed to some pretty things made by his
son, of the bright colored logwood, ''was COM
inc in There was those rs worked night and
dav. landing it. and after all their toll they want
ed TO pay them off with Just q quarter of what
was the right money. So if they that are so
well off try to cheat like that, I'd ask your hon
or if it is not setting an example TO the poor!


'.There's Ned Smecth, now-hc has got that
fine medal from that grand place up to London
am sure he is as tender hearted as a child, but
You'll never make him believe there is any sin
in taking stray baulk or two the tide brings in
and nobody owns; while after he'd been work
ing for a whole week they wanted to pay him
with little more than nothing That's what
call stcalingl


''But my old head is forgetting the story Well,
well, YOU must please to excuse it. 1t does make
NV blood boil 10 hear such falsties.


'''Twas seven years last November-I mind
it well-me and Ned were standing as your hon
or and me is now, by my old hut here. 1t was
bitter night of weather, and was so dark we
could not see even the clouds of foam that kept
flying in our faces, I'd just put the mill 60
ing with some barley, and was minded to lie
down for nap. (for YOU see | always wake when