Rambles Beyond Railways; or, Notes in Cornwall taken A-foot. Wilkie Collins Collins

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       Wilkie Collins

      Rambles Beyond Railways; or, Notes in Cornwall taken A-foot

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4057664611307

Table of Contents

       PREFACE

       THE PRESENT EDITION.

       RAMBLES BEYOND RAILWAYS.

       I.

       A LETTER OF INTRODUCTION.

       II.

       A CORNISH FISHING TOWN.

       III.

       HOLY WELLS AND DRUID RELICS.

       IV.

       CORNISH PEOPLE.

       V.

       LOO-POOL

       VI.

       THE LIZARD.

       VII.

       THE PILCHARD FISHERY.

       VIII.

       THE LAND'S END.

       IX.

       BOTALLACK MINE.

       X.

       THE MODERN DRAMA IN CORNWALL.

       XI.

       THE ANCIENT DRAMA IN CORNWALL.

       XII.

       THE NUNS OF MAWGAN.

       XIII.

       LEGENDS OF THE NORTHERN COAST.

       POSTSCRIPT TO

       RAMBLES BEYOND RAILWAYS.

       THE CRUISE OF THE TOMTIT

       The Scilly Islands.

       THE CRUISE OF THE TOMTIT.

       I.

       II.

       III.

       IV.

       THE END.

PREFACE

       Table of Contents

      TO

      THE PRESENT EDITION.

       Table of Contents

      I visited Cornwall, for the first time, in the summer and autumn of 1850; and in the winter of the same year, I wrote this book.

      At that time, the title attached to these pages was strictly descriptive of the state of the county, when my companion and I walked through it. But when, little more than a year afterwards, a second edition of this volume was called for, the all-conquering railway had invaded Cornwall in the interval, and had practically contradicted me on my own title-page.

      To rechristen my work was out of the question—I should simply have destroyed its individuality. Ladies may, and do, often change their names for the better; but books enjoy no such privilege. In this embarrassing position, I ended by treating the ill-timed intrusion of the railway into my literary affairs, as a certain Abbé (who was also an author,) once treated the overthrow of the Swedish Constitution, in the reign of Gustavus the Third. Having written a profound work, to prove that the Constitution, as at that time settled, was secure from all political accidents, the Abbé was surprised in his study, one day, by the appearance of a gentleman, who disturbed him over the correction of his last proof-sheet. "Sir!" said the gentleman; "I have looked in to inform you that the Constitution has just been overthrown." To which the Abbé replied:—"Sir! they may overthrow the Constitution, but they can't overthrow My Book"—and he quietly went on with his work.

      On precisely similar principles, I quietly went on with my Title-Page.

      So much for the name of the book. For the book itself, as published in its present form, I have a last word to say, before these prefatory lines come to an end.

      Cornwall no longer offers the same comparatively untrodden road to the literary traveller which it presented when I went there. Many writers have made the journey successfully, since my time. Mr. Walter White, in his "Londoner's Walk to the Land's End," has followed me, and rivalled me, on my own ground. Mr. Murray has published "The Handbook to Cornwall and