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  CORNWALL


                   AGENTS

  AMERICA      THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
                 64 & 66 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK

  AUSTRALASIA  OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
                 205 Flinders Lane, MELBOURNE

  CANADA       THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD.
                 St. Martin's House, 70 Bond Street, TORONTO

  INDIA        MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD.
                 MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY
                 309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA

  [Illustration]




  THE LAND'S END

  CORNWALL

  PAINTED BY
  G. F. NICHOLLS

  DESCRIBED BY
  G. E. MITTON

  WITH
  TWENTY FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
  IN COLOUR

  [Illustration]

  A. & C. BLACK, LTD.
  4, 5 & 6 SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.
  1915




  Contents


  CHAPTER I                                PAGE
  POPULAR IDEAS OF CORNWALL                   1

  CHAPTER II
  THE GATEWAY OF THE DUCHY                   24

  CHAPTER III
  THE "TOE" OF CORNWALL                      34

  CHAPTER IV
  FURTHEST WEST AND FURTHEST SOUTH           51

  CHAPTER V
  KING ARTHUR'S LAND                         71

  CHAPTER VI
  THE SANDY BEACHES OF THE NORTHERN COAST    92

  CHAPTER VII
  THE INLETS OF THE SOUTH COAST             109

  CHAPTER VIII
  CORNISH TOWNS                             124

  CHAPTER IX
  CORNISH CUSTOMS                           135

  SOME BOOKS ON CORNWALL                    145

  INDEX                                     147





  List of Illustrations in Colour


  1. The Land's End             _Frontispiece_
                                  FACING PAGE
  2. Carbis Bay                             6
  3. Kynance Cove                          10
  4. At Polperro                           14
  5. The Coast near the Lizard             16
  6. Old Bridge at Lostwithiel             28
  7. St. Michael's Mount                   34
  8. Newlyn                                38
  9. Lamorna Cove                          42
  10. Caerthilian Cove                     66
  11. St. Ives                             92
  12. A Street in St. Ives                 94
  13. From Lelant to Godrevy               98
  14. Fowey                               110
  15. Bodinnick Ferry, Fowey              114
  16. Looe                                118
  17. Flushing--from Falmouth             122
  18. Truro                               124
  19. The Banks of the Fal, Falmouth      128
  20. At Newlyn                           138

  _Bird's-Eye View of Fowey Haven, pp._ 112 _and_ 113.
  _Sketch-Map at end of volume_.




CORNWALL




I

POPULAR IDEAS OF CORNWALL


To the mind of the ordinary Briton there is a curious attraction in
"getting as far as you can"--a streak in mentality which has accounted
in no small degree for the world-wide Empire. In England you cannot in
one direction get any farther than the extreme point of Cornwall. Owing
to the geographical configuration of Cornwall, the idea is magnified
very vigorously into a really gallant effort to "get there," such as
might be made by an individual stretching out not only to his full
stride, but indulging in a good kick! We feel in very truth we have "got
there," on to the edge of something or somewhere. As Wilkie Collins
expresses it, the Land's End is "the sort of place where the last man in
England would be most likely to be found waiting for death at the end of
the world!"

Thus it is that Cornwall holds a special magnet which steadily draws a
never-ending succession of strangers. Look only at those who do the feat
of cycling or motoring from John o' Groat's to Land's End. Picture them
in an indomitable long-drawn-out line, wheel to wheel; shadowy forms
flitting over that last--or first--piece of road, full of hope and
exultation at the thought of the journey's end, or full of anticipation
at the journey's beginning. No road in England has been so wheel-worn as
that strip running out to the most westerly point of England.

Some there are who are drawn by a similar magnet to the Lizard, the most
southerly point of our land, but the attraction is not so potent. From
time immemorial John o' Groat's to Land's End has formed the measure of
Britain.

For very many years Cornwall has been known for its fine coast scenery,
but wild and desolate scenery was not the fashion in Early Victorian
days, and there were comparatively few brave souls who penetrated so
far. It is rather remarkable to notice how many books about the charm of
Cornwall appeared in the sixties, doubtless due to the opening of the
Cornwall Railway in 1859. There is Wilkie Collins's _Rambles Beyond
Railways_, 1861; J. O. Halliwell's _Rambles in Western Cornwall_ and J.
T. Blight's _Land's End_, the same year, followed by Richard Edmonds's
_Land's End District_ the next year.

But Cornwall really began to be known by hundreds of persons in place of
tens about 1904, and since then the number of visitors has increased to
thousands.

This book is not written by a Cornishman, for the very obvious reason
that no Cornishman could for one instant think impartially of his Duchy,
any more than you could expect a Yorkshireman to believe that the "rest
of England" was in any way to be compared with Yorkshire. The more
individual and peculiar a person is, the more deeply is he loved by
those who really know him, provided that he has lovable qualities. No
characterless good soul ever wins the heartfelt devotion that is the
meed of those who have unexpected kinks and corners in their
personality, and in the same way a flat, featureless country, carefully
cultivated and uninteresting, will never win to itself the true
land-love felt for one that is varied, rough maybe, rugged a bit, and in
a hundred ways surprising. Of all things human nature hates boredom, and
the man or the country who can win free of any trace of boredom insures
a reward. Cornwall has in a peculiar measure gained the devotion of its
own people. Not only on account of its unexpectedness, but because it
stands in some measure apart from the rest of England. The Celtic blood
of its older inhabitants, while making them akin to the Welsh and Irish,
cuts them off from the Saxons, whom so often and so heartily in the old
days they fought.

The geographical position of Cornwall, with three sides washed by the
sea, and even the "land" boundary mainly marked by a river, has
influenced its sons, who, never being far from the sound of the surging
waves, have gained something of the robust aloofness of the sailor. They
are friendly to all, but guarded nevertheless; and standing thus apart,
marked out by their territory, with small chance to mingle with
inhabitants of other counties, the clan feeling among them has grown to
be analogous to that of the clans in Scotland. All other Britishers are
to the true Cornishman "foreigners." How then could a man so imbued with
his own and his Duchy's place in regard to the "rest of England" write a
book which should convey in any way the real characteristics of his
land?

It would be a feat impossible.

The rugged outlines of a well-known face lose meaning with years of
familiarity, and are taken for granted; thus it is with landmarks in
Cornwall, which would never figure in such a chronicle at all.

Therefore, as this book is intended not so much for those who know
Cornwall as for those who will know it sometime in that future which
lies beyond the reading of it, the impressions of an outsider are most
fitting.

There are people who go to Cornwall once for a holiday and return to it
ever and again, when they get the chance, unable to find satisfaction
anywhere else; the "atmosphere" of the country has entered into their
blood. They think with an ache of the coast in all its cruelty and
glory, they picture the bright blue of the rain-washed skies in a burst
of sunshine, and they recall the great "hedges" with a foundation or
core of stone, generations old, overlaid by an ample covering of turf
and grass, a hot-bed for the stonecrop and hart's-tongue, fern,
primrose, or foxglove.

But what is a catalogue of words? It conveys nothing, any more than a
catalogue of the names of books. Unless one can conjure up feelings, the
attempt to explain the grip of the Duchy on recollection is useless. The
clammy sea-wind on