shooting-box. A hay-loft stood at one end,
and when the house was enlarged the archway under which the hay-waggons
were driven was left standing, and now forms part of the drawing-room--a
room with an unusually high ceiling. A member of the family has been
kind enough to send me notes of one or two incidents in the history of
the Bullers.

'The whole Buller family was at one time reduced to a single individual,
John Francis Buller. He died of the smallpox. His mother insisted on
seeing him after death. It was in the days when air was considered
highly prejudicial to smallpox patients, who were covered with red
cloth, and every window and cranny through which air might enter was
carefully closed. To minimize the risk to his mother, who would listen
to no dissuasion, all the windows and doors were opened, and a draught
of air admitted, with the result that when his mother entered the room
the dead man rose from his bed and received her.' Mr Buller lived to
marry Rebecca, daughter of the Bishop Trelawney who was one of the seven
Bishops sent to the Tower by James II. His arrest created intense
indignation in his own county; and he is the Trelawney referred to in
the well-known fragment, all that remains of a ballad written at the
time to express Cornish feeling:

'And shall they scorn Tre, Pol, and Pen?
And shall Trelawney die?
There's twenty thousand Cornishmen[2]
Will know the reason why.'

[Footnote 2: In another version 'underground'--_i.e._, miners.]

A later Mr Buller of Downes had a brief but unpleasant experience of the
feeling of the mob in regard to the Reform Bill.

'I recollect hearing that at the time of the first Reform Bill (1830)
the members of the House of Commons were threatened with dire
consequences if they could not give what the mob considered satisfactory
answers to their questions.

'Mr Buller of Downes was on his way to the House in his own carriage,
when a crowd stopped him, demanding to know how he meant to vote. He
took no notice of their request, but remained quietly seated, when some
of the men opened the carriage door with cries of, "Pull him out! Pull
him out!" and were proceeding to carry out their threat, when his
servant, who was standing behind the carriage, sprang up to the roof,
and, waving his hat, shouted: "What! don't you know my master, Squire
Buller? Why, he's always for the people!" Whereupon the door was closed
again with a bang, the coachman told to