f the inhabitants.

The very appearance of Cornwall is eloquent of its granitic structure;
nothing less enduring could have survived the stress to which it is
daily exposed. All softer measures have been eroded by the fierce wash
of Atlantic seas; what we may consider a gaunt, bare backbone has
stood the test, and the Cornish coast to-day confronts forces that
would play havoc with the more yielding and gentle curves of east and
south-east England. We know what the narrow seas can do on
East-Anglian and Kentish shores; and the same work of coast-erosion
that we there see proceeding before our very eyes must have taken
place in Cornwall before the days when historians could note it. The
denudations that left our stark Cornish coasts as we know them now for
the most part occurred in times that are dim and legendary. We hear of
the havoc by an uncertain voice of tradition; we dream of a lost land
of Lyonesse, of which only the Scillies remain; but the underlying
truth of such romantic rumour must be carried back to Neolithic or
earlier times. Though inaccurate in detail, such legends are rarely
baseless. In places, such as Mount's Bay, there is still evidence of
what the sea has taken; in other parts the evidence has been washed
far from sight. The fact that the shallow seas extend far westward
cannot be ignored; when we speak of a lost Lyonesse we are not
dealing with absurdities. We must only be careful to date it far
enough backward, or rather to leave it without date, which is a matter
for the geologist rather than the historian to settle. It is an
alluring vision on which we can linger without the sense of being
actually unhistoric. We may even carry our thought further still, if
we choose, and dream of some old Atlantis, now lying submerged in far
greater depths beneath the waters of the ocean that perpetuates its
name.

It will be seen that the peculiar shape of Cornwall has not been
attained by chance, but has been the result of natural forces. In its
appearance on a map there is a certain resemblance to Italy; while
some etymologists, taking this appearance as a guide, have imagined
that the origin of its name may be found in its horn-like figure. No
other British division--using the word "division" advisedly, for
Cornwall is not strictly a county--has such an extent of coast-line.
Its greatest direct length is 80 miles, but the broken nature of the
shore increases this very considerably; even at its juncture wi