212 



THE SEA. 



Smuggling was almost invariably carried on in stormy weather, or on dark, cloudy nights. 

 On some occasions the people of these fishing-towns and the country behind rose en masse 

 and resisted the revenue officers, even to the extent of stoning and firing upon them. 



The antiquities of Cornwall have called forth a very considerable quantity of learned 

 literature, but, with the exception of the picturesque and graphic matter furnished by 

 Wilkie Collins, Philip Henry Gosse, and, in lesser degree, by the writer just quoted, 

 the county is not popularly known. Mr. Collinses description of Looe, an ancient Cornish 



fishing- town, will be read with interest. He says : " The first point for which we made 

 in the morning was the old bridge, and a most picturesque and singular structure we 

 found it to be. Its construction dates back as far as the beginning of the fifteenth century. 

 It is three hundred and eighty-four feet long, and has fourteen arches, no two of which are 

 on the same scalo. The stout buttresses built between each arch are hollowed at the top 

 into curious triangular places of refuge for pedestrians, the roughly-paved roadway being 

 just wide enough to allow the passage of one cart at a time. On some of these buttresses, 

 towards the middle, once stood an oratory, or chapel, dedicated to St. Anne, but no traces 

 of it now remain. The old bridge, however, still rises sturdily enough on its old foundations ; 

 and, whatever the point from which its silver-grey stones and quaint arches of all shapes 

 and sizes may be beheld, forms no mean adjunct to the charming landscape around it. 



