pleasant impressions of the
Cornish people--you, whose only object is to hear, and I whose only
object is to tell, the story of a holiday walk. There is enough to be
found in them that is good, amply to justify a little inattention to
whatever we may discover that is bad.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] It may be necessary to remind the reader that this statement
respecting the population of Cornwall was written in the year 1850. I
have no means at my disposal of ascertaining what the increase in
numbers may have been during the last ten years.--(March, 1861.)

[3] The gentleman here referred to--whose kind assistance while I was
writing these pages I can never forget--was Mr. Richard Moyle, long
resident as a medical man at Penzance. Since my first visit to Cornwall,
death has removed Mr. Moyle from the scene of his labours, to the
lasting and sincere regret of all who knew him.--(March, 1861.)

V.

LOO-POOL

"Now, I think it very much amiss," remarks Sterne, in 'Tristram Shandy,'
"that a man cannot go quietly through a town and let it alone, when it
does not meddle with him, but that he must be turning about, and drawing
his pen at every kennel he crosses over, merely, o' my conscience, for
the sake of drawing it." I quote this wise and witty observation on a
bad practice of some travel-writers, as containing the best reason that
I can give the reader for transporting him at once over some sixty miles
of Cornish high-roads and footpaths, without stopping to drop one word
of description by the way. Having left off the record of our travels at
Liskeard, and taking it up again--as I mean to do here--at Helston, I
skip over five intermediate market-towns and two large villages, with a
mere dash of the pen. Lostwithiel, Fowey, St. Austell, Grampound,
Probus, Truro, Falmouth, are all places of mark and note, and have all
certain curiosities and sights of their own to interest the inquisitive
tourist; but, nevertheless, not one of them "meddled" with me in the
course of my rambles, and acting on Sterne's excellent principle, I
purpose "letting them alone" now. In other words, the several towns and
villages that I have enumerated, though presenting much that was
generally picturesque and attractive in the way of old buildings and
pretty scenery, exhibited little that was distinctive or original in
character; produced therefore rather pleasant than vivid impressions;
and would by no means suggest any very original series of d