he above this record following (dated forty-four years ago) as a
specimen of my letter-writing in old days: it has pen-and-ink sketches,
here inserted by way of rough and ready illustration. The whole letter
is printed in its integrity as desired, and tells its own archaeological
tale, though rather voluminously; but in the prehistoric era before
Rowland Hill arose, to give us cheap stamps for short notes, it was an
economy to make a letter as long as possible to pay for its exorbitant
postage: for example, my letters to and from Oxford used to cost
eightpence--or double if in an envelope, then absurdly surcharged.

_My Cornish Expedition._

[Illustration: [The Arms of Cornwall]

8th and 9th of January 1840.

"FOR ONE AND ALL"]

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

My Dear Mother, and all good Domiciliars,--

I suppose it to be the intention of our worshipful and right
bankrupt Government that everybody write to everybody true, full,
and particular accounts of all things which he, she, or it, may
have done, be doing, or be about to do; and seeing I may have
something to say which will interest you all, I fulfil the
gossiping intentions of the Collective Wisdom, and give you an
omnibus epistle. Now, I recommend a good map, a quiet mind, and as
Charley says, Atten_tion_.--The bright, clear, frosty morning of
the 8th found me at Devonport, and nine o'clock beheld the same
egregious individual, well-benjamined, patronising with his bodily
presence the roof of the Falmouth coach. A steam ferry-bridge took
us across the Hamoaze, which, with its stationed hulks, scattered
shipping, and town and country banks, made, as it always makes, a
beautiful landscape. At Torpoint we first encountered venerable
Cornwall; and a pretty drive of sixteen miles, well wooded, and
watered by several intrusions of the unsatisfied sea, brought coach
and contents to Liskeard, a clean, granite, country town, with
palatial inn, and (in common with the whole of Devonshire and
Cornwall) a large many gabled church, covered with carved cathedral
windows, and shadowed by ancient elms. Not being able to accomplish
everything, I heard of, but saw not, divers antiquities in the
distant neighbourhood of St. Clare, such as a circle of stones, an
old church and well, and the natural curiosity called the
che