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^^ dTfisheiy , being particularly noticeable , as i that on the Ancient Drama in Cornwall , which alS 0 Teavein the hands of our friend Vivian . There «« , tiv nassages tempting us as extracts ; but we Sr by ^ the " bits of sSmery" for the sake of this curious account of . LOO POOL . " The banks of Loo Pool stretch on either side to ? fcp leneth of two miles ; the lake , which in summer lUntiniea little more than half the space that it covers ? is formed by the flow of two or three small "JJ ms ' You first reach it from Helston , after a walk of half a mile ; and then see before you , on Jther hand , long ranges of hills rising gently from the water ' s edge , eovered with clustering trees , or ocnied by wide cornfields and sloping tracts of common land . So far , the scenery ^ around Loo Pool resembles the scenery around other lakes ; but as
vou proceed , the view changes in the most striking nnd e xtraordinary manner . Walking on along the winding banks of the pool , you taste the water and find it soft and fresh , you see ducks swimming about in it from the neighbouring farmhouses , you watch the rising of the fine trout for which it is celebrated—every object tends to convince you that you are wandering by the shores of an inland lake-when suddenly , at a turn in the hill slope , you are startled by the shrill cry of the gull , and the fierce roar of breakers thunders on your ear—you look over the light grey , placid waters of the lakp , and behold , stretching immediately above and beyond them , the expanse of the deep blue ocean , from which they are only separated by a mere strip of smooth white sand ! . _
.... . . . . . " You hurry on , and reach this bar of sand which parts the great English Channel and the little Loo Pool—a child might run across it in a minute ! You stand in the centre—on one side , close at hand , water is dancing beneath the breeze in glassy , tiny ripples ; on the other , equally close , water rolls in-mighty waves , precipitated on the ground in dashing , hissing , writhing floods of the whitest foam—here , children are floating mimic boats on a mimic sea ;_ there , the
stateliest ships of England are sailing over the great deep—both scenes visible in one view . Hoeky cliffs and arid sands appear in close combination with rounded fertile hills , and long grassy slopes ; salt spray leaping over the first , spring-water lying calm beneath the last ! No fairy vision of Nature that ever was imagined is more fantastic , ormore lovely than this glorious reality , which brings all the most widely contrasted characteristics of a sea view and an inland
view . into the closest contact , and presents them in one harmonious picture to the eye . " The ridge of sand between Loo Pool and the sea , which , by impeding the flow of the inland streams , spreads them in the form of a lake over the valley-ground "between two hills , is formed by the action of storms from the south-west . Such , at least , is the modern explanation of the manner in which Loo Bar has been heaped up . But there is an ancient legend in connection with it , which tells a widely different story . It is said that the terrible Cornish giant , or ogre , Tregeagle , was trudging homewards one day , carrying a huge sack of sand on his back , which—being a giant of neat and cleanly habits —he designed should serve him for sprinkling his
parlour floor . As he was passing along the top of the hills which now overlook Loo Pool , he heard a sound ot" scampering footsteps behind him ; and , turning round , saw that he was hotly pursued by no lees a person than the devil himself . Big as he was , Tregeagle lost heart and ignominiously took to his heels : but the devil ran nimbly , ran steadily , ran without losing breath—ran , in short , like the devil . Tregeagle was fat , short-winded , had a load on his back , and lost ground at every step . At last , just as he reached the seaward extremity of the hills , he determined in despair to lighten himself of his burden , nnd thus to seize the only chance of escaping his enemy by superior ncetness of foot . Accordingly , he opened his huge sack in a great hurry , shook out all ins
¦ sand over the pneipice , between the sea and the " ver which than ran into it , and bo formed in a moment the Bar of Loo Pool . ' In the wintor time , the lake is the cause and the scene of an extraordinary ceromony . The heavy incessant rains which then fall ( ico is nlmost unknown in the moist olimate of Cornwall ) , increase « uy by day the waters of the Pool , until they encroach over tlio whole of the low flat valley between Helston nnci tho sea . Then , the smooth paths of turf , the j ute streams that run by their side—so pleasant to look on in tho summer timo—are hidden hv tho treat ovei
-Uow . Mill-wheels are stopped ; cottages built on the declivities of tho hills are threatened with inthr f n' ° Ut on the bar ' at hi B h tide » but two or iroe t oot of nand appear between tho stormy sea on oth ° r " ' Und tho 8 t ° B nant swollen lako on the fn i Pool were measured now , it would bo " wv ? extond to a circumference of seven miles . . When tho flooding of the luko has reached ita <• "max , lho millers , who nro tho principal sufferers by no overflow , prepare to cut a paasugo through tho 1 W x . tlle flUper » bundant waters of the Pool , "wore they can do this , however , they must conform
to a curious old custom which ha 3 been practised for centuries , and . is retained down to the present day . Procuring two stout leathern purses , they tie up three halfpence in each , and then set off with them in a body to the Lord of the Manor ! Presenting him with their purses , they state their case with all due formality , and request permission to cut their trench through- the sand .. In consideration of the threepenny ; recognition of his rights , the Lord of the Manor graciously accedes to the petition ; and the millers , armed with their spades and shovels , start for the Bar .
" Their projected labour is not great . A mere ditch suffices to establish the desired communication : and the water does the rest for itself . On one occasion , so high was the tide on one side , and so full the lake on the other , that a man actually scraped away sand enough with his stick , to give vent to the waters of the Pool . Thus , after no very hard work , the millers achieve their object ; and the spectators , watching on the hill , then behold a striking and tremendous scene .
" Tearing away the sand on either side , floods of fresh water rush out furiously against floods of salt water leaping in , upheaved into mighty waves by the winter gale . A foaming roaring battle between two opposing forces of the same element takes place . The noise is terrific—it is heard like thunder , at great distances off . At last , the heavy , smooth , continuous flow of the fresh water prevails eren over the power of the ocean . Farther and farther out , rushing through a wider and wider channel every minute , pour the great floods from the land , until the salt water is stained with an ochre colour , over a surface of twenty miles ' . But their force is soon spentsoon , the lake sinks lower and lower away from the slope of the hills . Then , with the high tide , the sea reappears triumphantly , dashing and leaping , in
clouds of spray , through the channel in the sandmaking the waters of the Pool brackish—now , threatening to swell them anew to overflowing—and now , at the ebb , leaving them to empty themselves again , in the manner of a great tidal river ; until a storm from the south-west comes on ; and then , fresh masses of sand and shingle are forced up—the channel is refilled—the Bar is reconstructed as if by a miracle . Again , the scene—changed but for a short seasonresumes its old features—again , there is a sea on one side , and a lake on the other . But now , the Pool occupies only its ordinary limits—now , the millwheels turn busily once more , and the smooth paths and gliding streams reappear in their former beauty ; until the next winter rains shall come round , and the next winter floods shall submerge them again . "
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NOTE BOOK OF A NATURALIST . Leaves from the Note Book of a JVaturalist . By W . J . Broderip , Esq ., F . K . S J- - Parker and Son . The readers of Fraser ' s Magazine during the years 1850 and 1851 will not have forgotten the delightful series of papers on Natural History which varied its pages ; and they will be pleased to hear that the author , Mr . Broderip , has collected them into ona portable volume for the library shelves .
Of all studies none can surpass in fascination and grateful result the study of Natural History , in the broad sense of that term ; at least such is our opinion , and we have been very discursive students . It is one of those subjects of which even a little knowledge is felt to be a gain , and no knowledge can pretend to exhaust the stores ; embracing every variety of interest and point of view , appealing to every class of intellect , and affording incessant occasions for the extension and application of our little knowledge . Natural History reaches from the charming prattle of White ' s History of Selborne ( next to Robinson Crusoe ical
the boys' own book ) to the great biolog problems mooted by Lamarck , St . Hilaire , Goethe , and Owen . To students of all classes we can heartily commend these heaves from the Naturalist ' s Note Book ; they abound in anecdote , in quaint erudition , in pleasant digression , in good observation and description . The higher questions of biology are not touched by Mr . Broderip , for he is here jotting down " notes " only , and does not by nature seem prone to philosophical speculation ; but if he does not argue questions , he gives us materials wherewith to work : for those we are thankful . Altogether a more agreeable volumo we should find
it difficult to name . Mr . Broderip ' s beaver " Binny , " who grew so fond of him , and died brokenhearted at their separation , has invested the race of beavers with a new interest in our eyes ; and if wo hud not conceived an original and independent passion for the Hippopotamus , who was the " lion " of the season , these pages would have" sent us straightway in search ot his acquaintance . Let every one read them , and oide by eid * with them , th e inimitable paper * on
our dear beast , which appeared in Household Words , so instinct with humour and real gusto . Mr . Broderip has the art of securing a reader ' s interest in his various pets—viz ., the genuine affection with which he treats of them . That is the primary requisite of all literature—si vis me fiere , and which may here . be rendered , " If you want me to love animals , you , who describe them , musfclove them too . "
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LAMARTINE ON WATERLOO . Hisioire de la Bestauration . Par A . de Lamaitine . Tome * III . and IV . W . Jeffs . French authors , great upon many themes , are magnificent upon Waterloo . If they were defeated on the plain , they have avenged that defeat in their writings ; and after all , does not every one know that they were not defeated ? If we remained in possession of the field , it was only because the French had quitted it in disgust !
Lamartine has peculiar qualifications for giving us a true and impartial history of Waterloo . In the first place he is a Frenchman . In the second place he is altogether unbiassed by any military knowledge . In the third place he is Lamartine . His book exhibits the qualities you might expect , and is very amusing in consequence . A . s a Frenchman he admits of no defeat ; nay , he proclaims Waterloo a day of triumph—as Lamartine , a " good hater ' of Napoleon , he reckons it
only as a defeat of the general . " Waterloo , " he says , " remains in history not as a failure of the French army , but as a failure of its chief . The army was sacrificed , not vanquished . Thus , unlike all other historical days which exalt or diminish the grandeur of a people , the defeat of Waterloo counts in the annals of the nation ' s glory as equal to a triumph . Europe lost none of its terror at soldiers who knew thus how to die , and an army that buried itself in its blood . For the world that
day was a day of terror at our name ; for rrance a day of grief , not of humiliation ; for Napoleon only it was a battle foolishly hazarded , an empire lost . " All this kind of uneasy braggadoccio seems very ludicrous to us . We can understand that France does not like the idea of having been beaten ; but why be perpetually trying to elude the stern facts , and to prove that she gained a victory ? Had she never been beaten before ? She , whose writers
invariably speak of Napoleon ' s " conquest of the world " —a foolish fanfaronade unworthy o a nation whose standards waved over cowed nations in Italy , Spain , Germany , and Egypt—does she forget that one small portion of Europe at least was not conquered by her , and that not only did the English invariably beat the French throughout the Peninsular Campaign , but our raw conscripts scattered Napoleon ' s veterans at the Pyramids ?
We are ashamed thus to be obliged to oppose the foolish boastings of writers whose main object seems to be the suppression of the actual truth . But Lamartine has led us into it by the wilful romance of his narrative . To show how his lofty imagination soars above facts , we may mention that he speaks of Wellington having seven horses killed under him . It sounds romantic—perilous—terrible—does it not ? Seven horses killed under him ! We in England lived under the impression that Copenhagen , the one horse that bore him through the day , escaped the murderous bullets , and died not long since at Strathfieldsaye " in a green old age . " Lamartine tells us elsewhere that he has seen the horse that carried Napoleon , and adds a mythical touch about him worth recording : —
" I have seen him surviving his master many years , always proud , haughty , gentle , and raising his head at the name of Waterloo as if he remembernd his glory t " Lamartine will thank us for a pendant to that story ! Copenhagen , when he heard the name of Waterloo , used to hang down his head , as if ho drooped under the memory of his defeat 1 We meant to rectify some of the enormous blunders and exaggerations of this account , but on reflection we desist . His inaccuracy is so excessive , that it would be idle to criticise it . He does not
even see the absurdity of talking of the Ninetyfifth regiment of our cavalry ; he augments a Scotch division of 400 into 4000 , and , ' instead of saying only 40 out of 400 remained , ho makes the number 400 out of 4000 ; he says Wellington ordered the cavalry to take off" the curb reins , and gave the men brandy to increase the impetuosity of their charge—a charge Wellington regretted because too impetuous ; he describes a shock as " irresistible , " which was not simply resisted , but the charging column cut to pieces .
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Fbb . I * 18 ' 52- ] C $ t . Jt * £ ( fr » 135
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 7, 1852, page 135, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1921/page/19/
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