58

[Illustration]

THE CORNISH RIVIERA

PLYMOUTH TO LAND'S END

"By Tre, Pol, and Pen,
You may know the Cornishmen."

The majority of our English counties possess some special feature, some
particular attraction which acts as a lodestone for tourists, in the
form of a stately cathedral, striking physical beauty, or a wealth of
historical or literary associations. There are large districts of rural
England that would have remained practically unknown to the multitude
had it not been for their possession of some superb architectural
creation, or for the fame bestowed upon the district by the makers of
literature and art. The Bard of Avon was perhaps the unconscious pioneer
in the way of providing his native town and county with a valuable asset
of this kind. The novels of Scott drew thousands of his readers to the
North Country, and those of R. D. Blackmore did the same for the scenes
so graphically depicted in _Lorna Doone_; while Thomas Hardy is probably
responsible for half the number of tourists who visit Dorset.

Cornwall, on the contrary, is unique, in that, despite its wealth of
Celtic saints, crosses, and holy wells, it does not possess any
overwhelming attractions in the way of physical beauty (the coast line
excepted), literary associations, beautiful and fashionable spas, or
mediaeval cathedrals.

History, legends, folklore, and traditions it has in abundance, while
probably no portion of south-west England is so rich in memorials of the
Celtic era. At the same time one can quite understand how it was that,
until comparatively recent years, the Duchy land was visited by few
tourists, as we count them to-day; and why the natives should think and
speak of England as a distant, and indeed a foreign, country. Certain is
it that less than a quarter of a century ago those who crossed the Tamar
and journeyed westward into the sparsely populated Cornish towns and
villages, were hailed as "visitors from England".

Bounded on the north and south by the sea, cut off on the east by the
Tamar, the delectable Duchy was a singularly isolated strip of land
until the magic connecting link was forged by Brunel. Indeed it is not
too much to say that Cornwall owes its present favourable position as a
health resort almost entirely to the genius of Brunel and the enterprise
of the Great Western Railway.

The lateness of the railway development of Cornwall is somewhat
rem