IMPRESSIONS OF PENZANCE 133 



imposed on his followers in his name the name of 

 one who abhorred Dissent is the cause of the tem- 

 perance of the Cornish people generally there is no 

 evidence to show, and no reason to believe. On the 

 contrary there is very good reason for disbelief. 



The Cornish people are incomparably better off 

 now, so far as material comforts go, than they were in 

 the last half of the sixteenth century, when Richard 

 Carew wrote his Survey of Cornwall ; but there have 

 been no really great, no radical changes no trans- 

 formations, as in so many other parts of Britain. 

 The life of to-day is very much like the old life, and 

 the people now are like their forefathers of three 

 centuries ago as described by Carew. He pointed 

 out that the tin-mines were a great evil the curse of 

 Cornwall, since it was impossible for the miners to 

 escape the abominable temptations to drink which 

 were thrust in their way. Every second house was a 

 drinking-place, into which the poor wretches were 

 enticed to waste their earnings, with the result that 

 their families were in a chronic state of want. But 

 the rural population were in a very different case ; 

 those who worked on the land were indeed poor, 

 fared coarsely, dressed meanly and wore no shoes, 

 but they were sober and industrious and lived in 

 decent homes, and their wives and children were 

 properly fed and clothed ; so that in the end they 

 were far better off and happier than the workers in 

 the mines. 



So we arrive at the conclusion that the Cornish 

 people are not, and never have been, intemperate 



