THE POETIC SPIRIT 193 



natives came up and planted themselves just behind 

 him. There was nothing the artist hated more than 

 to be watched by strangers over his shoulders in this 

 way, and pretty soon he wheeled round on them and 

 angrily asked them how long they were going to stand 

 there. His manner served to arouse their spirit and 

 they replied brusquely that they were going to stay as 

 long as they thought proper. He insisted on know- 

 ing just how long they were going to stay there to his 

 annoyance, and by and by, after some more loud and 

 angry discussion one of them incautiously declared 

 that he intended standing at that spot for an 

 hour. " Do you mean that ?" shouted Hook, pulling 

 out his watch. Yes, they returned, they would not 

 stir one inch from that spot for an hour. " Very 

 well ! " he said, and pulled up his easel, then marching 

 off to a distance of thirty yards, set it up again and 

 resumed his painting. And there within thirty yards 

 of his back the two men stood for one hour and a 

 quarter, for as they did not have a watch they were 

 afraid of going away before the hour had expired. 

 Then they marched off muttering curses. 



In all this, and still more in their occasional 

 emotional outbreaks, which when produced by reli- 

 gious excitement are so painful to witness, the 

 Cornish are no doubt very much like other Celts in 

 Britain ; but in some things, with one of which alone 

 I am concerned here to wit, the imaginative faculty 

 these separate branches of the race have diverged 

 very widely indeed. The old literatures of Ireland 

 and Wales live to show it, and in Ireland, at all 



