172 THE LAND'S END 



was asked indignantly by one of the old men how 

 I would like it if, on a Sunday on my way to chapel 

 in a black coat and silk hat, I were to pass under the 

 rookery and something were to happen to my hat. 

 I replied that I always attended chapel in tweeds and 

 that if I wore a silk hat it would serve me right to 

 have something happen to it. Such an occurrence 

 would only afford an additional reason for preserving 

 the birds. My questioner glared at me, and I judged 

 from their looks that the others did not approve of 

 such sentiments. 



It was very funny, but I heard an even funnier one 

 when listening to the talk of a knot of elderly and 

 middle-aged men discussing the treatment the Educa- 

 tion Bill was receiving in the House of Lords. But 

 it was not in Penzance, and I will mercifully conceal 

 the name of the little town in Bolerium where I heard 

 it. The men, it must be observed, were all Method- 

 ists who had adopted the view of the question which 

 the ministers had been expounding in the chapels. 

 "What we want in England," said one, "is the 

 Russian system, just to remove the men in the two 

 Houses who are opposing the will of the people." 

 The sentiment was heartily applauded by all the 

 others. It was delightfully Cornish just the senti- 

 ment one would expect to hear from the deeply 

 religious Cornishman. 



At this same place I heard about a local preacher, 

 a man of a very fine character, who was taxed one 

 day by his employer with having served as a model 

 to an artist of the town, a Mr. Charles. " Yes," he 



