VI 

 CORNISH MARKET GARDENING 



CORNWALL used to be known as West Wales, so one 

 may allege some sort of sequence in resuming in the 

 far south-west the farming pilgrimage that had been 

 interrupted in Anglesey. Both counties are strong- 

 holds of the Celtic folk, and one might well expect 

 that in so primitive an art as agriculture much would 

 survive to indicate the common origin of the peoples. 

 Indeed, if such survivals were common there should be 

 a good deal of the old Celtic farming customs left 

 throughout England, because it is impossible to believe 

 that the invading Saxon races killed off the native 

 British in charge of the land, however much they may 

 have exterminated the warriors. But few such traces 

 remain ; it is true that the shepherds of the South 

 Downs and even in East Anglia still count their sheep 

 with Celtic numerals that run up to fifteen (bumpit = 

 Welsh pymthaeg) and then continue one-and-fifteen, 

 two-and-fifteen, etc., but in the main the farming of 

 Great Britain is of comparatively late birth, and we 

 must seek its origins on the Continent rather than 

 among the primitive customs of our own constituent 

 peoples. It was the intercourse with Flanders and the 

 Low Countries from the time of Henry VII. down to 

 the Commonwealth that taught the English how to 

 farm and gave us such crops as turnips, clover, and 



hops ; from this starting-point the landlords and larger 



340 



