ITINERARIES. 



185 



delineated by Speed. This day we found, near Wood- 

 ford Bridge, Campanula cymhalarice foliis \Campanula 

 hederacea, Linn. :] near Launceston, in a shady lane, are 

 two species of mmcus (q. osmund royal,) \_Osmunda 

 regalis, Linn.] grows in great plenty by the way sides ; 

 and near Houlsworthy (a mean market-town in Devon- 

 shire,) in the way to Launceston, we saw in the hedges 

 great numbers of a kind of wild cherry-trees, with a 

 long sharp-pointed leaf. 



Friday, June the 27th, we passed on towards Padstow ; 

 but rode first to Tintagel, where we found Cornish dia- 

 monds on the rocks ; but the fairest and largest are met 

 with in the quarries, where they dig stone. Some there 

 are, of the bigness and length of one's finger, very clear 

 and pellucid ; all of them have six sides, besides the ends. 

 At Denbyboul, about two miles from Tintagel, is the 

 best quarry of slate in the country ; it lies east and west, 

 and deepens westward. They slit it with chissels into 

 thin laminae : when it is first dug it slits easily, afterw^ards 

 the sun hardens it so, that it will not slit at all. It is 

 divided into several beds, both longways and broadways, 

 by cracks or rifts, which they call junks ; the outside of 

 the slate, where the junks go, is commonly of a red 

 colour. At St. Elyn's we passed one Mr. Matthews 

 house, riding on to Padstow, where is as pretty a key as 

 any I have seen. Mr. Prideaux has a seat here. This 

 town is noted for strong beer. Great plenty of slate is 

 dug up about this place, which they send into South 

 Wales, and it is a good trade : they bring from thence 

 pit-coal. Near Padstow we saw great flocks of Cornish 

 choughs [red-legged crow, Fregilus graculus?^ The 

 gannets \Sula alha?^ they told us were almost of the 

 bigness of a goose, white, the tips only of thek wings 

 black ; they have a strange way of catching them, by 

 tying a pilchard \Clujpea pilchardus] to a board, and 

 fastening it so that the bird may see it, who comes down 

 with so great swiftness for his prey that he breaks his 

 neck against the board. 



