Prussia, as the man himself came to be called, carried on a wholesale business, and rose into notoriety. One day, in 1785, the Fairy sloop-of-war standing in to examine the fortification, the long six-pounders were promptly fired, and the vessel not being able to bring her broadside to bear, the boats were sent to destroy the battery; and did their work very effectually, as your own eyes may witness.

When Samuel Pellew, Lord Exmouth's brother, was appointed Collector of Customs at Falmouth, he found corruption and effrontery the chief characteristics of the service. He one day surprised a party of his own officers assisting to run a cargo of wine in broad daylight. On the western coast alone there was a squadron of six smuggling cutters and luggers, altogether of more than seven hundred tons, manned by two hundred and thirty-five men, and mounting fifty-six guns: four, nine, and twelve-pounders; and well provided with boats and small arms. The crews knew that, sailing in armed vessels, their lives were forfeited; and were prepared to resist to the last. Pellew kept his cruisers so constantly at sea to intercept the illicit traffic, that the smugglers and their confederates more than once threatened his life, and actually posted handbills offering a reward for his assassination. Such evidence of the state of things in Cornwall during the ministry of Pitt is scarcely credible. And this but a specimen of what was going on round the coasts of the whole kingdom.

One of the luggers, the Happy-go-Lucky, of fourteen guns, was commanded by a fellow named Wellard; a terror to the Channel. Placed under the ban of outlawry, he had made up his mind never to be taken

alive, and by dint of seamanship and stubborn bravery long eluded capture. Pellew's cruisers were never idle; and Exmouth himself, then a post-captain, once went in pursuit, in the depth of winter. At last, in April, 1786, the Happy-go-Lucky was surprised early one morning at anchor near Mullion Island, in sight of St. Michael's Mount. The smugglers cut their cable and made sail; but the two cruisers engaged her, and after an action of nearly an hour, a raking fire killed the outlaw, his mate, and wounded twelve of his crew; the rest surrendered, and were carried with the prize to Falmouth. Here a new difficulty arose: the prisoners were shut up in Pendennis Castle, and the civil power being too weak to repel an attempt at rescue, threatened by a formidable party from without, a company of soldiers was sent for from Plymouth; but before they arrived the smugglers broke out, joined their friends, carried off the wounded who were lodged in the town; all but one, and he for security was afterwards removed to Newgate, and tried in London. Many years were needed to purge Falmouth of its contraband practices.

Though moist and boisterous the climate of the Lizard is not unhealthful; severe cold is almost unknown. The winter, generally speaking, may be likened to autumn prolonged into an early spring. Frost and snow rarely occur, and quickly disappear. Even in the last two winters, when more snow fell than any one could remember for some twenty or thirty years, it melted away within a week. The people live to a good old age, some to a hundred, and in one instance to a hundred and twenty, as may be seen in the parish registers. Fish diet may perhaps have more to do with this health and longevity than has hitherto

been considered. at Plymouth Hospital, the conclusion was drawn that those who live most on fish are least liable to disease; owing, as is thought, to the presence of iodine in their food.

From observations made for a time

We came to Old Lizard Head; and now I stood on the most southerly point of England. From headland to headland, each stretching farther than the last, had I walked, and reached at length the lowest latitude possible on foot. No nearer could I go towards the tropic. The cliff has three prominences, a triple head, and the ground rising from within to the edge forms a sloping bank, alive with flowers, on which you may stand and look below in full security. Immediately beneath, the Stags, a reef of black rocks, thrust their heads from the water, each encircled with a shifting ring of foam; and all along, far as eye can see, the worn and wild aspect of the precipice, the shattered crags, and arched buttresses mark the destructive advance of the surge and the spray. The igneous rocks bid defiance to the sea where the stratified would speedily crumble away; and the serpentine here at the extremity of the Lizard protects all behind it. Slowly and almost imperceptibly does it yield. The Nare Point exhibits a similar instance of the resisting effect of an igneous rock, and others occur on the opposite side of the county. For ages has the -strife been going on; the solitary cliffs

"Hearing no voice save of the Ocean flood,
Which wars for ever on the restless shores;
Or visiting their solitary caves,

The lonely sound of winds that moan around
Accordant to the melancholy waves."

Imagination grows excited in such a spot. Did the land at one time stretch forth from hence and join the

continent of Spain, as some geologists, and botanists too, would have us believe? Here are found plants which, growing nowhere else in England, are natives of countries on the opposite side of the Channel; and the serpentine resembles that once quarried by the Romans on the borders of the Mediterranean. As at Galway, so do some of the people exhibit traces of Spanish blood: a question in what Dr. Latham calls "minute ethnology." The varied inquiry is hardly to be solved on the spot; but you will carry away ideas and impressions that may give interest and precision to your future studies.

Then past the Quadrant, across the ravine of Caerthillian, and up to the Tor Balk, or Tarbox, as it is commonly called, from whence you have a fine view of Kynance, and of the Rill, the bold headland beyond. It is a rough scramble down to the cove over the big stones and heaps of pebbles strewn at the bottom of the descent the larger ones, however, enable you to get across the noisy brook dryshod. There are two or three cottages here, and the most picturesque of mills, the rim of the large wheel seen high above the roof. The pebbles are of all colours-green, red, yellow, gray -specimens of the cliffs that border the cove; and you feel tempted to fill your pockets with the handsomest. A rare collection might here be made for paving kiosks and summer-houses.

The confusion of stones is succeeded by a sloping beach of sand, smooth as a floor, its light colour heightening the effect of the dark rocks and precipices. It improves the place for summer visitors; in winter it is often washed away by the storms, and the whole beach left a stony waste. Here are caves and recesses enough

to satisfy those interested in Nature's own tunnelling; but of the grand crimson arch that once formed so striking a feature in the scene only half remains; the sea devoured the other half in 1853. The floor of some of the caves slants rapidly upwards, and seated at the inner end you may observe the wondrous effect of the light darting in, flung from side to side past the protruding ribs of rock; here making a circle of the red and green veins sparkle again; there twinkling like a star on a speck of crystal; there glistening on the roof as emerald varnish. More phenomena, indeed, of brightness and gloom are presented than you will easily discover. Then slowly descending, with a pause between each step, you may vary the effect at pleasure, till in full light again. And to get a view of the dark blue sea from deep within the archway is a picture to be returned to and lingered over more than once during your exploration. In some of the smaller caves, where the advancing wave rushed hissing to the entrance, I could scarcely repress a shudder, as the idea of being cut off by the tide flashed through my mind.

After visiting the Kitchen, Parlour, Drawing-room, and whatever other cavity for which a name has been found, you have to climb Asparagus Island. A little care and effort are necessary; but there is no difficulty which a woman even may not surmount; though the practice of the guides, as my companion told me, is to exaggerate the task, and enhance the value of their services by marvellous stories. Since 1846 they have had an additional advantage in pointing out the rock on which the Queen landed during her trip down the

coast.

A few strides upwards and you see two jets of water