LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2315, 5 September 1881, Page 4

LITERATURE.

THE STRANGEST JOURNEY OF MY LIFE. [From “London Foclety, ’] Continued .) She replied by taking he* ticket out of her month and showing it to ns. Ihe ticket was to Plymouth; but even in these days of school board education, she did not have much of an idea where Plymouth might happen to be. ‘ But we don’t stop there,’ she exclaimed ‘ Wo are going on to the very world’s end in these parts. And when we have finished with England we shall go on to the very world’s end in other parts. I said when I answered the advertisement that I had no ohj action to travelling. Neither I haven’t.’ The train shrieked as wo passed over the spider like viaduct of Ivybridgo. Wo come into Plymouth. Erskine knows the station well, and Ido not. The maid was presently waiting very demurely on the platform, and Ersklno contrived to learn that the party were going on by the West Cornwall line. There is great buotle and confusion from the change af carriages. The moment was not propitious for any kind of action. Erskine huiried me up to see the Hoe, for he said that he was sure that I would never forgive him if I came to Plymouth and did not see that fair sight which the Admiral of the Spanish Armada so longed to possess. Being a man with acquaintances everywhere, he took me into the Yacht Club, where we restaurated. Then baok to the station In time for the train. Over the Koyal Albert Bridge, looking down upon the vessels far beneath ns so tiny, with near and distant views of the border lands of Cornwall and Devon ; on, on we pass over a succession of bridges and viaducts that span the valleys and alight upon the hilltops; pass small towns and smaller villages—all Cornish towns mn small —pass primitive country people standing about the gates of stations, for on this line all the trains are cheap, and stop everywhere. All move very slowly, for it is a somewhat perilous line, raised on wooden trestles, and no train mast exceed a certain speed, and all the line has to be repeatedly surveyed every day, _ ‘ Now, old man,’ exclaimed Erskme, ‘ I will just explain to yon the geography. The doubtful point which we have to decide is whether our dear friends intend to go to Falmouth or to Penzance. Certainly they ought not to miss suoh a lovely harbor as Falmouth, and this is the most direct way to Holston and the Liaard country. But on the other hand, at Penzance you command the Lizard and Land’s End, and can go to the Scilly Mauds or to the north coast. Make yourself quite easy, I will keep a sharp look out when wa get to Truro. Perhaps onr little xoubrette may turn up again.’ Penzance, he reported to me, was onr destination. For some time in the darkness of the evening our way was fitfully illuminated by the light of furnace fires. The streams ran white with the china works. Then over a broad expanse of tranquil water we saw at last the ‘vision of Bayona and the guarded mount,’ St. Michael’s Mount of the St- Anbyn’a, rising aloft and beyond ■ the lights of Penzance. Then we get to the station—the only one I knew by name, and that because I had seen it mentioned In one of Mr Black’s novels.

But it is Fortune that helps the brave, and it is tho brave who desere the fair. I made a point of wandering about the glorious headlands and beaches of West Cornwall. I congratulated myself that while I was carrying out my friend’s wishes and my doctor’s orders, I was also advancing my own particular schemes. Lord George assured me that I was making a great mistake in not coming faster to the winning-post, and that if I would only strike boldly should be able to get an introduction, and to bring the introduction to a prosperous issue. But then Lord George had ‘ a gift of impudence ’ with _ which I coaid not compete, and against which I was nervously on my guard. It made me tingle with very shame, the thought of being accused of forwardness and presumption. I am afraid that I am not the sort of man to get on in the world, which made me all the more grateful for the fact that I had had ‘ a father before me,’ who, in a sort of way, had made me very tolerably independent of the world. I must say that it was rather mortifying, when we had been to the very westernmost point of English soil, and had climbed the Logan rook, and had faced the Atlantic rollers, and had refreshed at the First and Last Inn, paying pretty highly for that unique distinction, that just as we had settled our score and called for our bags an open barouche drove up, I caught a passing gleam of the divine original of the photograph. Erskino promptly recommended either we should return to the rooks to make a geological investigation, or that it would be a good opportunity of making another feed, which he could always do at a moment’s notice, and on the slightest pretext, I waived the unconscionable proposal, and Fate speedily gave me a compensation to which I certainly felt entitled.

We had gone down from Penzance to the Lizard country. Wo had seen at Helston the great fresh water lake, only separated by a bar of sand from the ocean, and had then gone southward to see the famous lighthouse, and to explore caves and coves. There is one, the loveliest of all coves, near the Lizard. I will not give its name, for this is a distinction for which there is some competition among the Lizird folk and the army of tourists and artists. One fine summer, having come up from the little inn at the Lizard on our homeward journey to Penzance, we came down to the beach. Looking landward down the cliff, along the gradual path there came a long procession of boatmen, carrying their piles of net. The scene was as complete and picturesque as a scene at the Italian Opera. The beach, closed in by cliffs, was most lovely. There were little rock pools amid the smooth sands, each a brilliant aquarium; and scattered about were many rare and exquisite shells. * * * * #

I have no doubt that the General considered us an intrusion : and if he had followed the untutored dictates of his own mind, he would like to order us up for three dozen But his wife, a pleasant goodnatured woman, made some kindly remarks, and some general conversation followed, in which we compared notes on various points of the Cornish coast which we had visited. Then there was a famous cavern to be explored, involving a difficult and prolonged pull over rocks and shingle ; and as the guide was carrying a big bundle of firewood for the purpose of illuminating the cavern, the General, who had not calculated on the roughness of the ground, was glad of an additional helping hand with his women-folk. As he was helping his wife, I helped the young lady, Erekine had slunk far into the rear, probably earning for himself the imputation of being an ill-conditioned and uncivil animal, to which in my interests he would heroically submit. It was a very fine cavern in its way, its wild and secret position giving it an additional mystery and charm. It had been a retreat for smugglers, and it was not impossible that parcels of silks and brandies might yet be found in its recesses. When we emerged from it at last, there was a wonderful story to be told of a Spanish galleon that had gone down in deep water at the end of the reef. One enterprising clergyman had spent an immense sum of money within recent years in employing divers to recover any of the lost bars of metal ; such a discovery in the American seas had laid the foundations of the fortunes of the house of Lansdowne; but there was no look in this venture on the Cornish coast. I rememeber how extraordinary rollers came in upon the cove, and the guide said that there must be some great storm a thousand miles away at sea, of which no intimation could bo gathered from the quiet smiling skies, which alone could account for the magnitude of the waves I can assure my reader, who has never tried it, that it is a great thing to sit on the boulders of a Cornish cove, and to look out on those wide seas— ‘ the baths of all the western stars.’ The old song says, ‘ One, two, three, full on the shingle they break ’; but each ninth wave is longest and tallest in tbe series, and I believe that there is some truth ia the idea that each tenth wave is an exact repetition of the tenth wave previous. I am told that artists obtain the accuracy of sea effects, or may obtain, by the study of tenth waves. You might discover, or think yon discovered, the archipelago of the Soilly Isles that morning yon saw the headlands of the western promontory. And If you really wish to commence the summer romance of your life under appropriate circumstances and amid

eloricus surroand’iiga, what could be fairer or better than to do so on this bright summer morning in this remote comer of Cornwall ? Then the very weirdness and wonder of the spot ! For me at least her voice would be always assoc atod with music of the summer sea, her aspect with the morning glory shed upon the sparkling hay. We talked about the Arthnrcan stories connected with Cornwall, and of the mystic palaces and churches supposed to sleep far beneath the sea, between the mainland and the Scilly Isles. I told her that Great Britain had five thousand islets scattered around her shores. Then we spoke of northern Cornwall, of the fabled splendours of Camelot and the real greatness of Tintagel, Then we talked of the ballads of Mr Hawker and the idylls of Alfred Tennyeon. I had a dip’omatio object in all this. Nothing is more capricious and uncertain than the movements of sightseers, and I wanted to find out whether they were going to see the lions of the north coast and were returning home. Miss Manning was not very certain of their movements ; they had a very few days more. And then they were going up to London, with a view of starting for the continent. Erskine and I had a council of war that afternoon, and by a wonderful combination of circumstances it was discovered that wo also had a certain call of business to London. We had obtained no definite information, bnt thought we could hardly go wrong in getting to town. Wo resolved on going to the Great Western Hotel, where we should be on the spot, and be able to take what is sometimes called ‘ a minnte and comprehensive survey’ of all the arrival trains.

On the very morning after onr arrival Erskine bnrat into my bedroom. * Make haste, make haste I ’ he cried. ‘We are off to Faria this very night I ’ ‘ Why on earth are we going to Paris ? ’ * Because I have found out that onr friends are off to Paris, But they are going a good way beyond Paris as well’ ‘ Who told you that ? ’ ‘Little Annette.’ * And who’s little Annette ?’

* Why, her maid—Miss Manning’s maid. ’ * You don’t moan to say that yon have met the maid ?’ ‘1 do indeed. And where do yon think that Miss Manning wag last night ?’ ‘ How can I tell, Erskine ! I would’t be an ass, if I were yon.’ ‘Why, she slept next door to you.’

* Goodness gracious V *lt seems that on their arrival they drove away from the Paddington station to the Charing Cross Hotel, And as they found it quite full they came back to the Great Western Hotel, and they had the big rooms next to onr own.’

• There was no sign of them in the coffee room.’

‘Of course not. They were breakfasting in their own rooms. And on the staircase I met little Annette, the same girljwbom we met in the Flying Dutchman ; and she says that they are going over to Paris to-night, and then either to Switzerland or the Pyrenees. Moat likely the Pyrenees. ’ 1 Couldn’t you get any more out of her V ‘ Not a word. The girl was in the greatest hurry in the world. It is only a man with consummate tact and knowledge of the world that could have got so much out of her.’

He always was a conceited beast, that Lord George. *We had batter take the Charing Cross train and cross over to Boulogne.’ ‘We have lost that train. Don’t you think it just as passible that they may now have driven to Victoria and have gone to Dover, intending to cross to Calais ?’ * Anyhow, pay the bill and let ns go.’ * Bat shall we have enough money V (To if continued.')