HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL IMPORTANCE. 193 



trade begcin to tlirivc, shipping to increase, and naval wars 

 to be carried on in the western world, the commodious situa- 

 tion of these islands at the opening into both the Channels 

 soon showed of what importance it was to possess them, and 

 how dangerous they might be to the trade and safety of 

 England if in an enemy's hand." The hungry may find in 

 Borlase a succession of historical dates and facts from the 

 tenth century downwards ; we will pause only at what is said 

 of Queen Elizabeth, who saw the imjDortance of these islands ; 

 " and having the Spaniards, then the most powerful nation 

 by sea in the world, to deal with, ordered Francis Godolphin 

 (knighted by her in 1580, and made Lord-Lieutenant of the 

 county of Cornwall) to improve this station. Star Castle 

 was begun and finished in 1593. At the same time were 

 built a curtain and some bastions on the same hill." The 

 castle still remains ; and the fortifications — not of a very 

 formidable aspect — manned by five invalids, still keep up 

 the fiction of awing the enemies of England. Not being a 

 military man, and still less a politician, it does occur to me 

 either that Scilly is strangely neglected in the matter of for- 

 tifications, or else that our enemies are very easily awed. 

 What Borlase said of it a century ago i-eraains true to-day : 

 " In the time of war it is of the utmost importance to Eng- 

 land to have Scilly in its possession: if it were in an enemy's 

 hand, the Channel trade from Ireland, Liverpool, and Bristol 

 to London and the south of England could not subsist ; for 

 Scilly, lying at the point of England, and looking into both 

 channels, no ship could pass, but a j^rivateer might speak 

 with it from one of these sounds. This the Parliament 



