Cornwall

General Editor: F.H.H. Guillemard, M.A., M.D.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS London: FETTER LANE, E.C. C.F. CLAY, Manager
Edinburgh: 100, PRINCES STREET Berlin: A. ASHER AND CO. Leipzig: F.A. BROCKHAUS New York: G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS Bombay and Calcutt: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
Cambridge: PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A. AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
The illustrations on pp. 3, 4, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 24, 32, 36, 37, 39, 41, 42, 47, 48, 49, 50, 54, 59, 60, 70, 73, 79, 81, 84, 86, 89, 91, 93, 95, 99, 105, 112, 113, 114, 117, 118, 120, 121, 123, 127, 138, 150, 151, 152, 153, 156, 158 are from photographs supplied by Messrs F. Frith & Co.; those on pp. 8, 43, 45, 58, 77, 94, 108, 109, 134 by Messrs Preston, Penzance; those on pp. 141, 146 by Mr Emery Walker, and those on pp. 6, 29, 34, 87, 119, 124, 130, 132 by Messrs Hayman & Son, Launceston.
If we take a map of England and contrast it with a map of the United States, perhaps one of the first things we shall notice is the dissimilarity of the arbitrary divisions of land of which the countries are composed. In America the rigidly straight boundaries and rectangular shape of the majority of the States strike the eye at once; in England our wonder is rather how the boundaries have come to be so tortuous and complicated—to such a degree, indeed, that until recently many counties had outlying islands, as it were, within their neighbours' territory. We may guess at once that the conditions under which the divisions arose cannot have been the same, and that while in America these formal square blocks of land, like vast allotment gardens, were probably the creation of a central authority, and portioned off much about the same time; the divisions we find in England own no such simple origin. Our guess would not have been wrong, for such, in fact, is more or less the case. The formation of the English counties in many instances was (and is—for they have altered up to to-day) an affair of slow growth. King Alfred is credited with having made them, but inaccurately, for some existed before his time, others not till long after his death, and their origin was—as their names tell us—of very diverse nature.