356 A Winter in Cornwall. [Sess. 
exceptionally bad; but still, even under the most favourable 
circumstances, there are frequent downpours, which turn the 
narrow roads into sloughs of despond and make them impass- 
able for pedestrians. In fact, the “ clartiness,” to use a familiar 
Seottish word, is inconceivable. When not raining, there is, 
as compensation, an amount of sunshine quite absent from 
Scotland, and one can sit out of doors on most dry days with- 
out wrapping up. Vegetables, such as cauliflower and broccoli, 
can be got from the fields in January, and lambs are to be seen 
running about during the same month. Potatoes do not require 
to be pitted, nor cattle wintered indoors, and what snow and 
frost occurs is of very short duration. Occasional snaps of 
chilly weather are experienced when the wind veers to the 
east or north-east, and there is a decided difference between 
the temperature of the south and north coasts—the latter 
being much the more bracing of the two as well as drier. 
The rainiest “airt” is from the south and south-west, and 
the storms that blow inland from the Channel are sometimes 
of terrific violence. Spring is, from all accounts, the best time 
to visit Cornwall—from March till the end of May,. when 
flowers and vegetation generally are at their freshest, and 
before the great heat of summer makes locomotion a toil. 
Let me warn any intending visitor, however, not to go there 
with the idea of viewing magnificent panoramas such as are 
to be had in the Highlands of Scotland or in North Wales. 
The scenery is tamer, and completely different from those 
localities, but, all the same, it has a charm of its own, and 
is by no means to be despised. 
Enough has been said to give a cursory idea of what the 
country is like, so let me go on now to the second division— 
Tue PEOPLE, Customs, Etc. 
The pure Cornish are, as is well known, Celts, being ap- 
parently more allied to the Cymric or Welsh than to the Irish 
or Scottish Gaelic-speaking races. Many of the names of 
places have a similarity to those found in Wales. To take 
one instance only, the prefix “Lan” is very common, evidently 
the same as the “ Llan” prevalent in the more northern country. 
The ancient language is, of course, dead, and from what can be 
