Mr. B. I remember having received a favourable impression with respect to the climate of that place, from the perusal of a small work, entitled, a Guide to the Mount's Bay and the Land's End; a copy was lent me by Sir —— ——, and I have since endeavoured to purchase one, but find that it is out of print.
Dr. A. Are you not aware then that you have been conversing with its author?—The book has been for some time out of print, but a second edition is nearly ready for publication; and, with your permission, I shall introduce, as nearly as my memory will serve, the conversation which we have just held together upon the subject of Climate.
Mr. B. By all means;—the questions which I have submitted for your opinion, are such as must naturally suggest themselves to every invalid who is in search of a winter residence, and as your little work, as far as I recollect, is intended for the same class of persons, its practical utility will be materially enhanced by the addition you have just proposed.
APPENDIX.—PART II
An Account of the First Celebration of the
KNILLIAN GAMES at St. IVES.
Alluded to at page [158] of this work.
We trust that our readers will find some amusement and relaxation, after the fatigue of their day's excursion, in the following Jeu d'Esprit, as originally written by an eye witness of the festivity; an institution which, adds the said writer, will go far to preserve the tone of the Cornish character, and which can never be neglected while the Cornish men continue to be brave, and the Cornish women to be virtuous.
The celebration of the Games at Olympia, after the revolution of every four years, formed the chief date of time among the Greeks; and perhaps in future the inhabitants of the West of England will reckon the years, as they pass, by the quinquennial return of the games at St. Ives.
I ought rather to have begun by stating, that John Knill, Esq. a gentleman formerly of great eminence in the above mentioned town, has bequeathed the income of a considerable estate to be distributed by the trustees in a variety of prizes to those who may excel in racing, in rowing, and in wrestling. A large sum is to be divided among a band of virgins, who are to be dressed all in white, and with four matrons, and a company of musicians preceding them, are to walk in pairs to the summit of the hill, which is near the town of St. Ives, where they are to dance and chaunt a hymn round the far famed mausoleum.