Page:A Book of the West (vol. 2).djvu/233

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CHAPTER XII.

THE TWO LOOKS

East Looe—Church—Narrow and picturesque streets—A fair—A strolling company—West Looe—Looe Island—The Fyns— Smuggling—The East Looe river—Duloe—S. Keyne's Well—Liskeard—Menheniot—The West Looe river—Trelawne—The Trelawny ballad—Polperro—Privateers—Robert Jeffrey—Tom Potter—Lanreath.

EAST and West Looe, separated by a tidal stream, the Looe (the same as Liffey from Welsh llifo to flow, llif a flood[1]), and united by a long bridge, at one time returned four members to Parliament.

East Looe is the more considerable place of the two, and possesses a new and respectable Guildhall, and some quaint old houses and an ancient picturesque market -house. The church is modern and poor of its kind—one of those structures that do not convey an idea to the mind of either beauty or of ugliness, but are mediocre in conception and execution. It occupies the site of an earlier church dedicated to S. Keyne, but it is now dedicated to S. Anne, who formerly had a chapel on the bridge.

The streets are narrow and full of quaint bits. As

  1. There are two rivers Lew in West Devon and two in Wales. There is a Loue that flows into the Vezere. There is also Loe Pool by Helston; the root enters into lough or loch.

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