Page:Cornwall (Mitton).djvu/24

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POPULAR IDEAS OF CORNWALL 9 the other, the verandah at Housel Bay Hotel, where, facing due south, you may sit in an atmo- sphere of summer which is indeed like a climate usually only to be looked for many degrees further south. But though this aspect is the keynote of almost every advertisement, or at any rate every winter advertisement, it is by no means the most promi- nent or characteristic one of Cornwall, which appeals far more to the hardy than the weak. When I think of Cornwall the vision that comes before me is not that of sheltered sun- bathed balconies, but rather of a high wind making the breakers frill around the jagged bases of the cliffs, while above, amid the towans or sandhills covered with bent grass, the golf-balls fly. The tang of the air seems once again in my nostrils, carrying with it an exhilaration that makes the blood race in the veins and entirely prevents tiredness. Only in one place elsewhere have I felt that exact stimulus, and that was far west in the neighbouring land of Brittany, near the Point du Raz, which stretches razor-like into the ocean, and in many respects strikingly resembles a bit of the Cornish coast. Many people will object that this is exactly what they understand Cornwall does not offer ; on the