neck, observing, "Nothing like keeping your pipes warm," walked off. Perhaps I had chilled him.

The catch on one afternoon at Sennen Cove filled about eight of the huge vats, and evidences of the take soon became apparent even to the heedless observer, that is, if he had a nose.

Pilchards were all over the road; casual ones dropped from the baskets as they were brought up in the creels from the boats to the salting sheds. You might have picked up along the shore enough for several meals. Pilchard scales are everywhere, and it is surprising how large these are. The pilchard, in size only about a small herring, is covered with hard scales, each close upon half an inch square.

It is said that the catches of pilchards are not so large as formerly, and that this falling off in the catches is due to the refuse poured into the sea from the mines and the disturbance of the sea caused by steamships and increased traffic generally on the ocean. I do not think there is any evidence in support of this contention. Fish are most uncertain; the same variations in "takes" which puzzle the fishermen are not infrequent round the Irish coasts and where there are no mines and no sea traffic. The truth is, we know just nothing about the habits of fish, and are quite ignorant of the why and wherefore of certain species such as pilchards, herrings, sprats, and even salmon now and again appearing in vast, even colossal, quantities, and then again becoming quite scarce. In 1851 a very large catch of pilchards is recorded as having taken place at St. Ives. One net alone was estimated to contain 16,500,000, or 5500 hogsheads, weighing 1100 tons. The probable value was £11,000, reckoning them at the price of £2 per hogshead before deducting the expense of curing.

Considering the vast importance of pilchards to this part of Cornwall, it is not surprising that the Celtic temperament of the people has woven around the industry a considerable wealth of delightful fanciful stories and customs. It is considered unlucky to eat the fish from the head downwards, the correct method is to begin at the tail and eat upwards. This procedure in mastication brings the fish to the shores and luck to the fishermen. One of the most characteristic Cornish pies or pasties is called “starrygazy," which consists of pilchards with the heads of the

PILCHARD LAW

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fish gazing at the stars through a hole in the middle of the crust. They make an excellent breakfast-dish when quite fresh, split open and grilled. The pilchard is also an excellent breakfast-dish when "marinaded," or baked with vinegar, spices, and sweet bay-leaves, eaten cold. In this form it keeps a long time. The squeaking noise when the fish are pressed in bulk in the vats, due to the bursting of the air-bladders, is called "crying for more," and is regarded as a good omen-that more fish will soon be brought in to keep them company.

The pressing stones, pieces of granite rock, often rounded, with an iron staple or handle in each for lifting, and weighing quite a hundredweight, placed on the loose boards laid over the fish in the vats, in order to squeeze them and express the oil, when not in use in the pilchard season, are stored on the floors of the cellars. The advent of a good haul of fish is presaged by a commotion among these stones, which are said to roll about and make a noise spontaneously, anticipatory of their shortly being required once more for service.

The pilchard fishery was formerly always specially protected, and stern local laws enacted for conducting it in accordance with established rules and customs. To unscientifically plunge into a shoal, or "school," and frighten the fish away was not permitted. So far back as 1684, in the civic records of St. Ives, I came across the significant entry in the Borough Accounts, "Spent 6th NovembTM at Ed. Pryors att a meetinge of the Aldermen to suppres the pilchard driveinge 3s. 6d." This ancient industry has also been the subject of testamentary bequest. John Knill, of St. Ives, who died in 1811, left several bequests for the benefit of that borough, where he had resided for upwards of twenty years, and amongst others the sum of £5 to be paid periodically" to the woman, married or single, inhabitant of St. Ives or otherwise, who shall by the Mayor, Collector of Customs and clergyman be deemed to be the best curer and packer of pilchards for exportation." The same benefactor similarly left £5 to the best female knitter of fishing nets.

We can therefore quite understand the curious Cornish toast, "Fish, Tin, Copper," and the significance of the sequence of the three staple industries. Fish pre-eminently first. Cornwall was never an agricultural county.

CHAPTER VII

CLIMATE-PENZANCE-SIR HUMPHRY DAVY

NOUCHING the temperature of this countie," says Speed, that wonderful old geographer who produced his map of Cornwall in 1610, "the aire thereof is cleansed as with bellows of the billows that ever worke from off her environing seas, where- thorow it becommeth pure and subtill, and is made thereby very healthful, but withall so piercing and sharpe, that it is apter to preserve than to recover health. The spring is not so early as in the more easterne parts yet the Summer, with a temperate heat recompenceth his slow fostering of the fruits, with their most kindly ripening. The Autumne bringeth a somewhat late harvest; and the Winter, by reason of the Seas warme breath maketh the cold milder than elsewhere. Notwithstanding that Countrey is much subject to stormie blasts, whose violence hath freedome from the open waves to beat upon the dwellers at land, leaving many times their houses uncovered." The tyrant, indeed, of our coasts, says Tonkin, is the West and North-West Winds."

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No doubt, from its being nearly surrounded by sea, the atmosphere of Cornwall, particularly the Land's End district, is moist, but the mildness occasioned by the same circumstances balances the inconvenience. Dr. C. Barham says that "Penzance, and indeed the whole peninsular portion of Penwith, is under this marine influence, which may be regarded as almost a fixed quantity, the temperature of the surrounding sea only varying between 60 degrees in summer and 50 degrees in winter.'

“Though the hills of the inland parts," says C. S. Gilbert in his History of Cornwall (1817), “and the lofty cliffs that breast its surrounding oceans intercept the mists, dews, and clouds, and bring them down in frequent, though not very

1 Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, No. XXI, p. 287.