1 86 THE LAND'S END 



have never produced any artistic or literary work 

 worth preserving are without imagination, to use the 

 word in its higher sense, as the creative faculty, the 

 question would be a very simple one, seeing that Corn- 

 wall has given us nothing or next to nothing. Compare 

 it in that respect with the adjoining county, divided 

 from it by a little river, but distinct racially : what 

 lustre Devon has shed on the whole kingdom ! how 

 many of her sons are so great in arms and arts, above 

 all in literature, that we regard them as among the 

 immortals ; and what a multitude of lesser men who 

 have made us richer in many ways ! Now as one 

 with a very superficial knowledge on this subject I 

 have put the following question to the three men of 

 my acquaintance who have the widest knowledge of 

 English poetic literature : " Has Cornwall ever pro- 

 duced a poet ? " and in each case came the quick 

 reply, "Yes, Hawker of Morwenstow." Now Hawker 

 is a great man to us on account of his strong and 

 original character, but he was a very small poet ; 

 I should say that during the last half- century 

 England has always had twenty or thirty living 

 minor poets who rank high above him. Finally, he 

 was not a Cornish but a Devon man, and it there- 

 fore struck me as exceedingly curious that I should 

 have had that same answer from the last of the three 

 friends interrogated, seeing that he is himself a highly 

 accomplished poet, a Devonian whose birthplace is 

 just on the borders of the duchy. The reply " Yes, 

 Hawker of Morwenstow " may then be taken to mean 

 " No, not one." 



