OUR HOLIDAY IN CORNWALL 89 



not yet made use of the season-ticket which Captain 

 Rogers, of Penrose, so kindly sent me to fish in 

 the Loe Pool. I will not leave Cornwall without 

 at least getting a glimpse of that celebrated lake. 

 That resolution being passed nem. con., I took 

 train for Helston, in spite of the lowering weather ; 

 a thunderstorm such as had not been known in 

 Penzance for years occurred here last night, with 

 hail and rain, which smashed over two hundred 

 panes in the windows of St. Mary's Church, 

 and kept all the females in this establishment in 

 a state of abject terror the livelong night. 



I am not nervous in such circumstances, but it 

 was quite impossible to sleep, the continuous vivid 

 flashes of forked and the white glow of sheet 

 lightning which lighted up my bedroom, and the 

 continued roll of distant thunder, with an occasional 

 crash overhead, effectually banished sleep it was 

 really a terrible night. 



The air still seemed charged with electricity, 

 hot, sultry, with a slight breeze. In face of this I 

 went to Helston, and, after a most tiring and 

 trying walk from the station of two miles and 

 more in the broiling sun, I found myself at the 

 head of the Loe Pool. It truly is a grand sheet 

 of fresh water, many miles in circumference, 

 closely bordering on the sea, with which its lower 

 waters are, at certain tides, sometimes mingled ; 

 but I did not see this lower part of the pool. In 

 truth, I found the heat so trying, and the clouds 

 so threatening of a storm to come, that I did not 



