104 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



ministry in the latter end of the civil wars of Cliarles I. 

 quickly experienced as soon as Sir John Granville had 

 garrisoned and fortified Scilly. Whitelock tells us that con- 

 tinual complaints were made to the then managers of affaii-s 

 at London, of the taking of ships by the privateers at Scilly, 

 so that at last they were obliged to send Admiral Blake and 

 Sir George Askue to dislodge the cavaliers from a post which 

 gave them such opportunities of distressing their trade." 

 Surely a post of this importance needs a stronger garrison 

 than five invalids ? Five may do for the " contingent " of a 

 small German prince ; nay, in one sublime instance, five is 

 the sum total of the standing army, but in that case the 

 principality itself is of commensurate importance. 



What has been already hinted will sufiice to show that 

 these patches of rock, on which ribald Cockneys doubted 

 whether English were spoken, and flounces worn, are islands 

 dignified by historical and political associations. These 

 Cockneys may be further assured that not only is English 

 spoken here, but spoken with a purity of accent, and intelli- 

 gent discrimination of diction, which I remember in no other 

 part of the English dominion. The Scillians are a remark- 

 ably healthy, good-looking race— the black eyes and long 

 eyelashes of the children making one's parental fibres tingle 

 with mysterious pleasure as the ruddy rascals pause in their 

 sport to look at the stranger. Tlieir manners are gentle and 

 dignified ; civil, not servile. Not an approach to rudeness 

 or coarseness have I seen anywhere. 



In the highest sense of the word civilisation, therefore, the 

 notion of the place being " half civilised" is altogether wrong. 



