74 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



nakedness, has kindly clothed them. All is fresh and beautiful 

 exceedingly under the deep blue canopy of sky. In the barest 

 valleys, where the huge granite blocks are thinly hid by bracken 

 and dog-roses, tall spires of fox-gloves impart a surprising tinge 

 of richness to the prospect, which is much heightened by the 

 brilliant colours of the ground-vegetation. There is none of 

 that sense of barrenness and desolation so common on the 

 Yorkshire hills, even in the most solitary parts of this district. 

 From hill-sides glittering with bracken, (have you ever observed 

 the effect of sun on bracken ? ), and purpled over with heather, 

 we suddenly come upon a patch of arable land, in the centre 

 of which is a mound of earth blazing with scarlet poppies. 

 Instead of burning their weeds as farmers do in other coun- 

 tries, the agriculturists here leave them in a mass to decompose, 

 first sprinkling it with a layer of salt from the pilchard cellars, 

 and then planting cabbages on it ; or, if in an outlying field, 

 leaving it, as in this case, for the poppies to overrun. Grass 

 fields, instead of this mound, have invariably a rough granite 

 block erected like a pillar in their centre, for the kine to rub 

 against. Unwary travellers may easily regard these as Druidi- 

 cal monuments when they first meet them, looking like specks 

 of grey light on the intensely green herbage of spring. This 

 charm of warm colouring is one of the first impressions a trip 

 to Cornwall leaves upon the mind. 



Another feature which greatly contributes to the distinctive 

 character of Cornish scenery is the granite fences. They are 

 to Cornwall what her hedges are to Devon. Stone walls are 

 common enough in Wales, Derbyshire, and elsewhere, but no- 

 where else can they be found consolidated by mosses and vege- 

 tation into the strength of almost living rock. In fact, these 

 fences are everlasting. Like all good things, their first cost in 

 labour is considerable, and a new granite wall, all rough edges 

 and sharp angles, is neither picturesque to the eye nor com- 

 fortable to sit down upon. But soon its projections are 



