THE ASH. 



157 



have been in the year 1750-3) a large ship 

 was wTecked between the Lizard and Kynance 

 Cove. At that period the miners and others used 

 to assemble in large bodies^ whenever they re- 

 ceived tidings of a wrecks and hastened to the spot 

 for plunder. On this occasion the tinners of Wen- 

 dron^ a parish about ten miles off, got the start of 

 the other parts of the mining district^ and were 

 the first to lade themselves with the booty, w^hich 

 in those days they considered their lawful prey. 

 The men of Breage and Germoe (parishes yet far- 

 ther distant) on their arrival at this Great-Tree 

 received the information that they had been fore- 

 stalled ; and knowing that most of the valuables 

 would be secured and appropriated before they 

 could reach the scene of rapine, resolved on wait- 

 ing at this spot and intercepting the plunderers 

 on their return. It was pretty late in the after- 

 noon w^hen the Wendron men, heavily laden with 

 w^hat they considered their rightful gain, arrived 

 at the ambuscade of their no less unscrupulous 

 waylayers. A furious battle ensued, might being 

 on either side the only test of right, and several 

 men were killed. But what principally distin- 

 guishes this fray from many others of the same 

 character is, that a vvoman v/ho was interested for 

 one of the parties, having deliberately pulled off 

 one of her stockings and placed a large stone in 

 it, mounted a hedge closely adjoining the scene 

 of conflict, and with this unusual but murderous 

 weapon actually beat out the brains of a man of 

 the adverse faction." Now, happily, a better 

 spirit prevails in Cornwall. In these days, the 

 tourist who, at the close of his day's wandering 

 along the cliffs and craggy rocks of the Lizard, 



