Cornish Characters and Strange Events

Opening of the book

CORNISH CHARACTERS AND
STRANGE EVENTS

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME

DEVONSHIRE CHARACTERS AND STRANGE EVENTS

With 55 Full-page Illustrations Reproduced from Old Prints, etc.

THOMAS PITT, LORD CAMELFORD

THOMAS PITT, LORD CAMELFORD

CORNISH CHARACTERS

AND STRANGE EVENTS BY S. BARING-GOULD, M.A.

WITH 62 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS REPRODUCED FROM OLD PRINTS, ETC.

One and All

"We all are men,

In our own natures frail, and capable

Of our flesh; few are angels."

HŧƿǡΏ VIII (Act V, Sc. 2).

LONDON: JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY

MCMIX

PLYMOUTH: WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD., PRINTERS

PREFACE

Cornwall, peopled mainly by Celts, but with an infusion of English blood, stands and always has stood apart from the rest of England, much, but in a less degree, as has Wales. That which brought it into more intimate association with English thought, interests, and progress was the loss of the old Cornish tongue.

The isolation in which Cornwall had stood has tended to develop in it much originality of character; and the wildness of the coast has bred a hardy race of seamen and smugglers; the mineral wealth, moreover, drew thousands of men underground, and the underground life of the mines has a peculiar effect on mind and character: it is cramping in many ways, but it tends to develop a good deal of religious

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