l church, and had
therefore not been protected by the marvellous virtue of the local
water. Unutterable was the joy and triumph of this discovery throughout
the village--the wonderful character of the parish well was wonderfully
vindicated--its celebrity immediately spread wider than ever. The
peasantry of the neighbouring districts began to send for the renowned
water before christenings; and many of them actually continue, to this
day, to bring it corked up in bottles to their churches, and to beg
particularly that it may be used whenever they present their children
to be baptized.

Such instances of superstition as this--and others equally true might be
quoted--afford, perhaps, of themselves, the best evidence of the low
state of education among the people from whom they are produced. It is,
however, only fair to state, that children in Cornwall are now enabled
to partake of advantages which were probably not offered to their
parents. Good National Schools are in operation everywhere, and are--as
far as my own inquiries authorize me to report--well attended by pupils
recruited from the ranks of the poorest classes.

Of the social qualities of the Cornish all that can be written may be
written conscientiously in terms of the highest praise. Travelling as my
companion and I did--in a manner which (whatever it may be now) was, ten
years since, perfectly new to the majority of the people--we found
constant opportunities of studying the popular character in its every
day aspects. We perplexed some, we amused others: here, we were welcomed
familiarly by the people, as travelling pedlars with our packs on our
backs; there, we were curiously regarded at an awful distance, and
respectfully questioned in circumlocutory phrases as to our secret
designs in walking through the country. Thus, viewing us sometimes as
their equals, sometimes as mysteriously superior to them, the peasantry
unconsciously exhibited many of their most characteristic peculiarities
without reserve. We looked at the spectacle of their social life from
the most searching point of view, for we looked at it from behind the
scenes.

The manners of the Cornish of all ranks, down to the lowest, are
remarkably distinguished by courtesy--a courtesy of that kind which is
quite independent of artificial breeding, and which proceeds solely from
natural motives of kindness and from an innate anxiety to please. Few of
the people pass you without a salutation. Civil