Although we should have been pleased to have had a talk with
him, we should scarcely have been able to accompany him on one of his
journeys, for he was 6 feet 3 inches in height against our 5 feet 8
inches, and he would have been able to walk quicker than ourselves. He
was born in 1803 and died in 1881, so that he was still alive when we
were walking through Cornwall, and was for many years a travelling agent
for the British and Foreign Bible Society. In the course of his
wanderings, generally on foot, he made a study of gipsy life, and wrote
some charming books about the Romany tribes, his _Lavengro_ and _Romany
Rye_ being still widely read. He was a native of Norfolk, but his father
was born near Liskeard, to which place he paid a special visit at the
end of 1853. On Christmas Day in that year, which was also a Sunday, he
walked to St. Cleer and attended service in the church, Mr. Berkeley
being the preacher, and although there was no organ, he saw a fiddle in
the gallery, so fiddles must have then been in use in Cornwall. He would
also see the Well of St. Cleer, which was quite near the church, and
must in the time of the Saxons have been covered over with stone, as the
old arches and columns were Saxon work.
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