THE PEOPLE AND THE FARMS 113 



of the Church. On the contrary I found it a usual 

 thing for the chapel people to go occasionally to church 

 as well, and many made it a practice to go every Sun- 

 day to the evening service. It is also common for the 

 chapel-goers to send for the vicar when in want of 

 spiritual aid. The minister often enough tells the 

 applicant to go to the vicar who is " paid to do it." 

 I talked to scores of people about the education 

 question and could hardly find one in ten to manifest 

 the slightest interest in it. The people had no quarrel 

 with the Church on that question, although their 

 ministers were preaching to them every Sunday about 

 it. These preachers were Scotchmen, Midlanders, 

 Londoners anything but Cornishmen and in most 

 cases knew as much about the Cornish as they did 

 of the inhabitants of Mars. They knew what the 

 Methodist Society wanted and that was enough for 

 them. 



Now I cared little about all this political pother. 

 While I listened and could not avoid listening, I was 

 like one who hears a military band with loud braying 

 of brass instruments and rub-a-dub of drums, but is 

 at the same time giving an attentive ear to some small 

 sound issuing from some leafy hiding-place in the 

 vicinity the delicate small warble of a willow-wren, 

 let us say. And the willow-wren in this case was the 

 real heart of the people, not all this imported artificial 

 noise in the air. That alone was what interested me ; 

 it was a relief to escape from the ridiculous hubbub 

 into one of the small farm-houses, to live with the 

 people in a house that never saw a newspaper, where 



