The North Coast of Cornwall. Its scenery, its people, its antiquities and its legends ... With map and illustrations and an appendix on the Geology by W. A. E. Ussher

Front matter

THE NORTH COAST OF CORNWALL. TINTAGEL THE NORTH COAST OK CORNWALL ITS SCENERY, ITS PEOPLE, ITS ANTIQUITIES AND ITS LEGENDS BY JOHN LLOYD WARDEN PAGE I AN EXPLORATION OF DARTMOOR AND ITS ANTIQUITIES' ; l AS EXPLORATION OF EXMOOR AND THE HILL COUNTRY OF WEST SOMERSET ' ; 'THE RIVERS OF DEVON FROM SOURCE TO SEA ' ; ' THE COASTS OF DEVON AND LUNDY ISLAND ' ; ETC. WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS And an Appendix on the GEOLOGY by AV. A. E. Ussher, f.g.s. " Where the long water of the West Breaks on the broken Cornish shore" — It. W. Baddeley JSristol : PUBLISHED BY W. CROFTON HEMAIONS, STEPHEN STREET. ILon&on : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Ltd. 1097. BRISTOL : PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY \V. CROFTON HEMMONS, ST. STEPHEN ST. PAGE i 24 59 CONTENTS. Preface xi.

Chapter I. Introductory

Of Cornwall — The North Coast -Climate —Geology — Harbours and the need of them —Towns and Villages — Cornish Hospitality—Sir Hildebrand Jacob — Absence of Trees —Fishing — Mining— China Clay Antiquities — Cliff Castles — Hill Forts — Huts — Stone Circles — Cromlechs— Menhirs — Crosses

Chapter II. Morwenstow

Marsland Mouth — Hennacliff — Morwenstow — Its Parson-Poet — St. Morwenna's Church — St. Morwenna — Tonacombe .

Chapter III. Bude Bay

Stanbury Mouth— Duck Pool — Kilkhampton — The Grenvilles — The Battle of Stamford Hill -Bude— The Breakwater and Chapel Rock — The Canal - Compass Point — The Bude Mermaid — Widemouth Bay — Millook — The Dazard— St. Gennys —A Cliff Castle — The Braddons of Treworgye — St. Genesius— Wanted, au Inn 43

Chapter IV. Boscastle

Crackington Haven — Loss of the William —Penkenner Point — Carnbeak — High Cliff — Pentargon Cove — Boscastle — A Blow-hole — Hawker and the Pigs — Minster — Forrabury Church— Story of the Bells — Some Queer Epitaphs CONTENTS. VI

Chapter V. Tintagel

Quarries in the Cliff— Stone Fences— Cadon Barrow— Well Town — Trevalga — Rocky Valley — St. Nighton's Kieve — The Strange Ladies — Bossiney Cove — Bossiney, an Ancient Borough — 1 revena — An Old Cross — Tintagel — King Arthur's Castle — St. Juliot's Chapel — Arthur Pendragon— Legend and History- Story of the Castle 72

Chapter VI. Between Tintagel And Pentire

Tintagel Church — A Roman Miliary Stone— Fences Again — Slate Quarries — Wreck of the Wilhelmina — Trebarwith — Port Gaverne— Delabole and its Quarries — Port Isaac — The Fisheries — The Yarn of the Ancient Mariner — Roscarrock — Porthqueen— Pentire— Padstow " River " .... 96

Chapter VII. St

ENODOCK AND PADSTOW. Polzeath— Sand-hills — Tregeagle and his Task — St. Enodock — Rock — Padstow — The Doombar — The Mermaid's Vengeance — St. Petrock and his Altar— The Church — An Ancient Bishopric — Prideaux Place — ' Ship my Pumps ' . . .115

Chapter VIII. From Padstow River To Mawgan Porth

Stepper Point — Pepper Hole and Butter Hole — Gulland — Shooting Seals— Trevone— Harlyn Bay— Trevose Head — Constantine : a Church in the Sands— Cornish Pies— Tom Parsons, the Wrecker- Constantine Bay— Port Cothan -A Smugglers' Cave- Grand Cliff Scenery— Bedruthan Steps — Queen Elizabeth — Mawgan Porth CONTENTS. VII

Chapter IX. Lanherne And Newquay'

Mawgan-in-Pyder— Vale of Lanherne— Mawgan Church— The Nunnery — An Inscribed Cross — Carnanton and Noye — Mawgan Porth and its Caves — Watergate Bay — Barrows — St. Columb Porth — Rialton Priory — Trevelga Head and the Blow-hole — Newquay — On Hotels and Scenery - China Clay — Cavems and Concerts ....... 146

Chapter X. St

CARANTOC AND ST. PIRAN. Fistral Bay— The Gannel — Crantock — Church of St. Carantoc — Gridiron Stiles — Polly Joke — Penhale Point — Holywell Bay — A Buried City — Cubert — An Inscribed Stone — St. Piran in the Sands — Perran Round and Miracle Plays — Perranporth . 164

Chapter XI. From Perranporth To Hayle

Perranporth — The Dynamite Works— Trevellas Bottom — St. Agnes — Opie the Painter — Trevaunance — St. Agnes Beacon — Giant Bolster and St. Agnes — Chapel Porth and Porth Towan — Portreath — Wreck of the Escurial — Tehidy — Nan-ax Point - Gwithian— Another Buried Church — Phillack - Hayle — The ' Cenui ' Stone ...... 183

Chapter XII. St

IVES. Lelant —Trecroben Hill — Castle an Dinas — Carbis Bay — St. Ives —Its History— The Church— St. la— The Harbour— Knill Monument — A Strange Testament — The Island— Cornish Sailors CONTEXTS. 219 246

Chapter XIII. By Cliff And Moorland In Penwith

Penwith— Giant-land— Trevalgan Hill— Zennor Quoit— Zennor Church Town— A Logan— The 'Giant's Craw ' — Gurnard's Head — The Alexandra Yeats — Porthmeor — Carn Galva and Giant Holibum — The Bee-hive Hut of Bosphrennis— A Penwith Edie Ochiltree— Mulfra Quoit — An Ancient Village — The Nine Maidens— Men Scryfys — Men an Tol and Faith- Healing — Chun Castle— Chun Quoit — The Hooting Carn

Chapter XIV. Bolerium

Pendeen — Aitken the Revivalist — Pendeen House and Dr. Borlase — Wanted, a Lighthouse — Levant and Botallack — Castle Kenidzhek — Cape Cornwall — St. Just-in-Penwith — Rocks with Strange Names— The Brisons— A Terrible Wreck — Whitesand Bay — Vellandreath — The ' Hooper ' — Sennen Cove — The Irish Lady — Maen Castle — Land's End Hotel — The First and Last — The Longships — The Land's End — Lyonesse .......... LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Tintagel. From a drawing by the Author . . FRONTISPIECE Morwenstow To faces. 30 Bude HAVEN. From a drawing by the Author . „ 48 Boscastle. From a sketch by the Author . . ,,64 Trevillet Mill ,, 77 Old Post Office, Trevena ,,80 Trebarwith Strand ,, 102 Padstow. From a sketch by the Author ... ,, 125 HARLY-N Bay. From a drawing by the Author .. ,, 137 Queen Elizabeth.

From a drawing by the Author ,, 143 Bedruthan Steps ,, 145 Lanherne ,,147 Newquay. From a drawing by the Author . . ,, 158 Crantock. From a drawing by the Author . . ,, 165 Perranporth Natural Arch. From a drawing by the Author ,,184 St. Ives. From a drawing by the Author . . ,, 207 Quay Town, St. Ives ,, 212 Gurnard's Head ,, 227 A Chun Quoit. From a drawing by the Author . . „ 243 Cape Cornwall from Land's End. From a sketch by the Author ,, 259 Land's End ,,

Preface

. With the exception of the guide-book pure and simple, I am not aware that any book has been written on the whole of the North Coast of Cornwall. Of course, there are, inter alia, the works of M. Esquiros, of Walter White, of Wilkie Collins, of Cyrus Redding ; but none of these carries the reader step by step, as it were, from the borders of Devonshire to the Land's End. May I venture to think, then, that — to use a hackneyed phrase — I am " supplying a want " ? It is related of the great Napoleon that he always began a book by reading the preface. If he liked the preface he honoured the book with his attention : if not, he threw it out of the window ! Personally I do not like prefaces — at all events not long ones — and, lest my readers feel as I do — lest they be tempted to follow Napoleon's example — I propose abbreviating this as much as possible.

PREFACE.

. My warmest thanks are due to my friend, Mr. Ussher, F.G.S., whose able paper on the Geology of the district will be found printed as an Appendix. I should be ungrateful, too, did I not acknowledge my indebtedness to the many writers whose works I have perused — to the three authors mentioned above, to Murray and Ward for their excellent Guides, to Daniell for his Geography, to Carew for his Survey, to Borlase for his Antiquities, to his descendant, W. C. Borlase, for his Nœnia Comubia, to R. J. King for his Studies Descriptive and Historical, and to a host of others too numerous to mention. Will the living accept my thanks — the dead, my gratitude ? Finally, let me once more call attention to the beauties of this our Western Land. They are more appreciated than they were, of course. Still, every year thousands of people cross the English Channel, ignorant or careless of the scenery that lies at their very doors — prepared to endure the discomforts of foreign travel — the indifferent sanitation of foreign towns, when they might enjoy — not endure — an existence far happier, and certainly far sweeter — in spite of certain fishy

PREFACE.

. XIII odours here and there — on this Coast of Cornwall. The matter has been cleverly put by a "West Country Poet, and with his lines I will conclude : " Oh ! restless Britons, who are not content Unless ye gallop to the Continent, And suffer martyrdom both night and day Just for the pleasure (when returned) to say The scenery (you scarcely saw) was fine, And go in fits about the lovely Rhine ! * * * * * Through continental odours love to roam, Or rave of cloudless skies transparent blue, Unconscious of the beauties nearer home — ■ Why spoil your pleasures in ascending hills Enough to break the lungs instead of healing ; Or run away to foreign rippling rills, And cheat yourself with false romantic seeling ? There's little need, my dear romantic friend, To search half o'er the Continent in quest Of what you'll find if you're inclined to spend A day or two in this our lovely West." JOHN LL. WARDEN PAGE. Elmfield, Totnes. August, 1897. THE NORTH COAST OF CORNWALL.

Chapter I. Introductory

Of Cornwall — The North Coast — Climate — Geology — Harbours and the need of them — Towns and Villages — Cornish Hospitality — Sir Hildebrand Jacob —Absence of Trees — Fishing — Mining — China Clay - Antiquities — Cliff Castles — Hill Forts — Huts — -Stone Circles — Cromlechs — Menhirs — Crosses. " There is a charm in the Cornish Coast which belongs to no other Coast in the world." — Dean Alford. Cornwall ! there is a ring of romance about the very name. One thinks of King Mark and King Uther and Arthur Pendragon, — of Guinevere the fair and frail — of Lancelot — of Geraint — of the Quest of the Holy Grail and of the hundred and one other persons and legends and traditions — myths, may be, some of them, but who shall say r whose shadows and memories still seem to haunt this westernmost corner of England.

And surely few will look, unmoved, upon the strange, mysterious cromlech, the hoary menhir with its brief inscription to some long-forgotten chieftain ; far less upon the weathered cross, or the crumbling B THE NAME "CORNWALL." oratory of some saint who risked his life for the redemption of the Celtic barbarian. "They had their dwellings in the wilderness, Or built their cells beside the shadowy sea; And there they dwelt with angels like a dream ; There they unrolled the Volume of the Book, And filled the fields of the Evangelists With thoughts as sweet as flowers." But it is not only these picturesque associations, vague and visionary most of them, on which at best is shed " a little trembling light much like a shade " that invests this ' horn of the Briton ' — for that is what Cornwall means* — with an interest * "Now Cornwall being cast out into the sea, with the shape of a horn, borrowed the one part of her name from her fashion, as Matthew of Westminster testifieth, and the other from her inhabitants; both which conjoined, make Cornuwalliœ, and contrived Cornwall : in which sense the Comish people call it Kernow, derived likewise from Kerne — a hom." — Carew's Survey of Cornwall.

Tonkin in a note adds that Corn and not Kerne is the singular for horn, and he derives the second syllable (as do most others) from Wealh, the Saxon for foreign or strange. There is no doubt that the Saxons called the Britons in general Wealas or Wealhas— hence the word Welsh— and the Comish in particular Corn-wealas, and their coun tiy West- Wealas or the West Welsh. "There is also," says Mr. Tregellas in his Tourist's Guide to Cornwall, "a district of Brittany called Cornouaille, teeming wth Cornish names, and whose rustics are, moreover, celebrated wrestlers." The connection between Welsh, Comish and Bretons, must have been an intimate one, and to this day there is such a similarity in language that it is on record that three sailors — Welsh, Comish, and Breton— meeting on the quay at Plymouth were able to understand one another.

Mr. Tregellas also remarks on the prevalence of the names of Welsh saints in tbe northern part of the county and of Breton in the south. SCENERY. 3 all its own. It is not only that it was the last refuge in Southern Britain of those Celts whose monuments are found on every moorland — the first abiding place in England of the Early Christian Missionary — witness how many of the churches in West Cornwall are dedicated to Irish Saints — Cornwall owes as much, perhaps more, to its position and the character of its scenery. There is a touch of strangeness in the knowledge that this county is the very last in Great Britain — that the rugged peninsula, cut off as it were by the Tamar from the country to the east, pushes itself westward into the wild waters of the Atlantic — that there is no land beyond it for three thousand miles.

And then the scenery. Has not Cornwall a seaboard almost unique — not so much for its height, though that is no mean thing, as for a certain rugged grandeur such as no other part of our coastline can boast ? It is difficult in mere words to convey the impression left by these Cornish cliffs, but he who has stood among the dark walls of Tintagel or looked down from the pinnacles about Land's End upon the misty waste of waters, is sensible that here, if anywhere, broods the spirit of space. To gaze across that vast heaving plain to the place where sea and sky meet is like gazing into the Future. And then the changelessness of it. As it was a thousand years ago, so is it to-day. The same 'cams' rough with lichen that looked down upon Phœnician SCENERY AND CLIMATE. 4 galleys look down upon English warships.

As has been said of a grim moorland eastward, whose weathered tors bear a strange likeness to the crags of Penwith, there is nothing like it anywhere else, and centuries have wrought no change. There is a charm, too, in the fact that Cornwall is still less known than any other English County. " Although," says a French writer, " although this country has been intersected for some years by railways, it has preserved — to use a fashionable phrase of the day — a powerful individuality. In spite of its savage rocks and abrupt coasts, it has been less deflowered than other counties by tourists." And if these remarks apply to the county as a whole, with how much greater force do they apply to the coast — especially to the northern coast. For, with all its interest the seaboard facing the English Channel has not the charm of the stern barrier washed by the rollers of the Atlantic.

Not only is it less bold, but it is more in the world and of the world. It is more populous, more under cultivation, more wooded. The climate too is different, and the soft air of Falmouth, however grateful to the invalid, is less appreciated by the ordinary mortal than the fresh breezes of Newquay. For it is quite a mistake to suppose that the whole of the Cornish coast is relaxing. Though both sides enjoy the influence of the Gulf Stream, the northern shore lies open to hundreds of leagues of sea, over which the westerly gale sweeps unchecked, while the CLIMATE OF CORNWALL. 5 southern lies to leeward (as sailors say), and is ex posed to the warm south westerly winds and, from its declination, gets much more sunshine than the coast opposite. But that the climate of Cornwall generally is mild cannot be denied — even on the northern coast.

In this very month* white carnations, marguerites, and cowslips are in blossom in a certain vicarage garden that I know of, and everybody has heard how London depends for its early vegetables on the district about St. Ives and Penzance. It is rainy, too ! The granite heights that run like a backbone down the centre of the county catch the cloud masses blown in from the Atlantic, and descend in such copious showers that " a shower on every week-day and two on a Sunday " are considered the proper allowance. Yet the climate is very healthy — "the air," says quaint Carew, "the air thereof is cleansed as with bellows by the billows and flowing and ebbing of the sea, and therethrough becometh pure and subtle and by consequence healthful." It is a little too subtle sometimes. A native at Sennen told M. Esquiros that in a gale it wanted two men to hold your hair on.

A writer who made the climate of the Cornish peninsula a special study says : " A Canadian would think there was no summer and say there was no winter ; a Spaniard would wonder what had become of the sun ; and a Peruvian would * January. GEOLOGY OF COASTLINE. think it always rained."* He tells us that January at Penzance is as warm as at Florence, Madrid, or Constantinople, and that July is as cool as at St. Petersburg, and that with the exception of the south west of Ireland " there is no country in the world with a climate so mild and equable as the south west of England." He puts it all down to our old friend the Gulf Stream. This warms the Atlantic, which in turn warms the westerly breezes passing over its surface to the Cornish shore. " Let the cold be ever so intense in winter the westerly wind will drive it back, and day after day the thermometer will stand at 500.

All this is very well in winter, but in summer the westerly wind is not so desirable. It brings with it clouds, vapour, rain, with a large proportion of which poor Cornwall could very comfortably dispense. The annual rainfall is no less than 44 inches. There is, I believe, a vague impression that the coast of Cornwall is of granite. It is nothing of the sort. As a rule, indeed, granite is conspicuous by its absence. It is true that large masses of this rock rise at intervals down the centre of the peninsula, but they touch the coast only in one or two places : the principal spot or district being the * Mr. N. Whitley, Development of the Agricultural Resources of Cornwall, Bath and West of England Agricultural Journal IX., part 2. Prize Essay on the Climate of the British Islands, Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 1850.

GEOLOGY. 7 extremity of the county — the tract lying between St. Ives and Land's End. Here, indeed, we have granite en bloc : cliffs that have few rivals anywhere : tors and cams and pinnacles of imposing height, and often of the strangest shape ; piles heaped in wild confusion — Peliom piled on ossa. But the rest of the coast is of slate. For many, nay, for most of us, Geology has, I fear, few charms. It is only the mind scientific that cares for the stony science, that likes to distinguish between Devonian and Silurian, between millstone grits and shales, between granite and greenstone. Therefore have I been merciful and omitted here all but a passing reference to the geology of our coastline. Those who interest themselves in the ' story of the rocks ' I will refer to my friend's paper, where, I doubt not, they will find the geology of these Cornish shores explained in terms as plain as is possible for anything geological.* Although the coast abounds in little bays and coves — generally called mouths in the northern part of the county, and porths further west — there are few shelters for shipping, and none that may be called really safe.

This on the most dangerous coast in England, and one past which tens of thousands of ships sail every year is a matter the seriousness of which cannot be over-estimated. Lying open to the Atlantic the little haven of * Appendix A, The Geology of the North Coast of Cornwall, by W. A. E. Ussher, F.G.S. HARBOURS OF REFUGE. 8 Bude, in spite of its breakwater, is often unap proachable for days, and then only by small craft and when the tide is full ; the narrow and tortuous entrance to Boscastle is even worse, while Padstow is blocked by a dangerous bar ; and the beautiful bay of St. Ives, except when the wind is from the west, has proved moro than once to be a death-trap. Newquay and Portreath are too small to be of much avail, even if they were always accessible, which they are not. There is no doubt that a harbour of refuge is sorely wanted — but where is it to be ?

St. Ives seems to be the spot most favoured by Nature, but this is too far west. Its position nearly in the centre of the coast-line points to Padstow, but then there is the Doombar to reckon with. Meanwhile, there is much cry and little wool, and the coast is strewn with wreckage from Land's End to Lundy. The coast can hardly be called populous. Towns, even villages are few and far between. From the borders of Devonshire to the estuary of the river Camel, a distance of fifty miles, there is only one town, if such it can be called — Bude — and but half-a-dozen villages, most of them mere hamlets. Below Padstow, itself a place of no size or impor tance, there is again a long stretch of coast but sparsely inhabited until you reach Newquay, a rising watering-place, though even here the popula tion, except in the " season," does not exceed fifteen hundred.

Beyond Newquay the mining TOWNS ON THE COAST. 9 district is reached, and passing the sandhills of Perran Bay we come to Perranporth, which is by way of being another watering-place, and a few miles further on, the mining town of St. Agnes. But from St. Agnes to Hayle only one place of any size breaks the long line of coast. This is Portreath, a village that might be picturesque were it not for a grimy little dock, where the Welsh steamers discharge their coal for the mines about Redruth and Camborne. After all these small places, Hayle on its sandy estuary with its popula tion of over two thousand, its engine works and foundries, seems quite an important town. Facing it across the bay is St. Ives, which combines fishing for pilchard, mackerel and herring with fishing for other fry, namely visitors, and is slowly but surely gaining a reputation as a health resort.

But — even here — and it is by far the largest town on the North coast — there are only some six thousand people. West of it, although the most desolate part of Cornwall, hamlets fringe the coast-road almost all the way to Land's End. For this part is (or was) a great mining district, and though most of the mines are " knacked " as the natives have it, i.e., knocked or abandoned, the women cling to their homes, though the men — many of them — go over sea to try their luck in the gold fields of Australia and the Cape. To sum up, then : a village about every eight miles, a town about every thirty is what the AN OLD TRAVELLER. traveller who tramps over these Cornish cliffs must expect. To those who love to fare delicately such a walk may have its terrors ; to me, I confess it gives a zest. There is something rather adventurous starting away in the morning with the vaguest of notions where you may put up at night.

For not every village has its inn, and at the end of five and twenty miles you may have to trust to a farm house or a country rectory for a bed. And here let me pay a tribute to the hospitality of the Cornish. Methinks, did even I possess the assurance of Sir Hildebrand Jacob, it would seldom be called in question by the large-hearted natives of Cornwall. This gentleman — who flourished nearly two centuries ago and was, in a small way, a poet and play writer — would, accompanied by his servant, " set off with a portmanteau, and without knowing whither they were going. Towards evening, when they came to a village, they enquired if the great man loved books and had a good library ; and if the answer was in the affirmative, Sir Hildebrand sent his compliments, that he was come to see him ; and then he used to stay till he was disposed to move further.

In this manner he travelled through the greatest part of England, scarcely ever sleeping at an inn, unless where town or village did not afford one person civilised enough to be glad to see a gentleman and a scholar."* * Nichols' Literary Anecdotes, ii. 61. CORNISH HOSPITALITY. 11 I have never tried this " pleasant mode of travelling," nor do I intend to; but if I did, I should certainly begin with Cornwall, whether the person on whom I proposed to quarter myself "had a good library " or not. But the hospitality that / have enjoyed has been spontaneous, or at any rate not the result of sending my " compliments " coupled with an intimation that I was " come to see" willy nilly the dispenser thereof. I remember two occasions in particular. Late one evening, after a long day's tramp, we reached a village near Newquay.

To our dismay the inn was full ! What was to be done ? Was there a lodging anywhere ? The landlady shook her head. Then a thought seemed to strike her. " I will send up to Rectory," quoth she, " and I daresay they'll put you up." " But," we expostulated, " really we can't let you do that — they don't know us — never heard of us — for anything they know we may be burglars in disguise." The landlady smiled : "Oh! that'll be all right," she said, "they often does it!" And in a quarter of an hour there arrived a polite note inviting the wayfarers to the Rectory. Four days later we were wandering about a mining village 'down along.' "And where did you put up last night, gentlemen ? " asked the parson, who had met us in the street. "At the farm? Oh, what a pity ! — if I had but known you should have come to the Vicarage."

And he had known us exactly a minute ! Was ever such open-handed CORNISHMEN. 12 hospitality — nay, such confidence in the bona fides of utter strangers r Verily, the words of the Roman historian, written so many centuries ago are true to this day. " The people who inhabit a promontory of Britain called Bolerium." says Diodorus Siculus, " are exceedingly hospitable and courteous in their manners." To their courtesy, apart from their hospitality, Queen Elizabeth bore testimony when she stated that " the Cornish gentlemen are all born courtiers with a becoming confidence." This, it is true, was said of the " upper crust " ; but the same may be said of all sorts and conditions of Cornishmen — and Cornish women. Nowhere will you meet a people more civil, more ready to answer questions, more unaffected, and at the same time less assuming than in this rugged peninsula at the limits of England.

They are a fine race, too ! " It was remarked," writes Cyrus Redding, " it was remarked of the Cornish Militia under Colonel Molesworth, at Chatham, that they stood on more ground than any other regiment of the same number. They are uncommonly well set, their old habits of hurling and wrestling, as well as of labour without doors, no doubt contributing to their muscular powers." And though hurling, which was a contest between two sides for a silver-plated ball tossed from hand to hand is nearly obsolete, and wrestling is not what it was, the Cornish are still finer men than those further ' up country.' ABSENCE OF TIMBER. 13 To return to the coast. Whatever beauties it may possess — and they are many — in one thing it is lacking. There is an almost total absence of trees. Here and there in the " bottoms " (which answer to the combes of Devon) one comes upon woodland, but in the open you may walk mile after mile without seeing anything that can be called timber.

No tree has a chance on this exposed coastline, swept from end to end by gales that would make short work of the stoutest oak. Even in places comparatively sheltered, the trees all lean one way, that is from the west, and have a curious shaven appearance as if a knife had trimmed them slantwise from the ground. " The story is told of a gentleman, living near the coast in Cornwall, who advertised for a gardener, that after taking an applicant from the Midlands around his estate, and explaining the duties he had to perform in the event of his being the accepted man, the latter expressed his belief that he could perform all the duties indicated to his employer's satisfaction. " But," said he, as they came in sight of a line of trees skirting the estate, " if you expect me to trim those trees like the fellow you had here last, I shall disappoint you !