1 68 THE LAND'S END 



reputation in the county. In one of his works, 

 entitled Peeps into the Haunts and Homes of the Popula- 

 tion of Cornwall (Truro, 1879), n ^ s avowed intention 

 is to "place before the reader a tolerably exact picture 

 of a Cornishman as he is, with all his rough sense of 

 honour, his kind heart, his self-reliance, his naivete, 

 his ingenuity, and his keen quiet power of wit and 

 observation. " There are scores of more or less funny 

 stories in this book, but one is soon weary of reading 

 it, because there is little or no evidence in it of the 

 " keen quiet power of wit " one looks for. One 

 finds what may be described as primitive humour 

 the humour of children and of men in a low state of 

 culture who delight in practical jokes, rough banter, 

 farcical adventures, grotesque blunders and misunder- 

 standings and horse-play. Of unconscious humour 

 there are many examples, which undoubtedly shows a 

 sense of humour in the narrator : and 1 will quote 

 the conclusion of one of the tales, perhaps the gem 

 of the book, in which an old widow relates her three 

 matrimonial ventures. " And then I married a tailor 

 who did praich sometimes, and was a soort of a tee- 

 totaler in his way, and never drinked nothing but tay 

 and sich like ; and then he faded away to a shaade, 

 and this day three weeks he died ; and ater he was 

 dead they cut un oppen to see what was the matter 

 with un. But waan of the young doctors that helped 

 to do ut towled me that he died all feer and they 

 couldn't find nuthin in un but grooshuns [tea sedi- 

 ment.] I woant have nothin' of that soort agen, but 

 I'll get a farmer with a little money ; and so I oft to, 



