Alas! there is one thing for which Lizard is notorious, and that is wrecks. The last great tragedy of that nature was the loss of the _Mohegan_, in 1898. A mysterious loss, for the two lights of Lizard shone clear to the left, and she was steered straight on the deadly Manacles, where she went to pieces. The churchyards of S. Keverne, Landewednack, and Mullion contain the graves of many and many a drowned man and woman thrown up by the sea. But, be it remembered, formerly those thus cast up, unless known, were not buried in churchyards, but on the cliffs, as there was no guarantee that the bodies were those of Christians. For this reason it is by no means uncommon on these cliffs to come on bones protruding from the ground on the edge of the sea--the remains of drowned mariners, without name, and of an unknown date. Indeed, it was not till 1808 that an Act was passed requiring the bodies of those cast up by the sea to be buried in the parish churchyard. "What is the usual proceeding?" said a curate to some natives, as a drowned man from a wreck was washed ashore. "In such a case as this what should be done?" "Sarch 'is pockets," was the prompt reply. NOTE.--Books on the Lizard:-- JOHNS (C. P.), _A Week at the Lizard_. S.P.C.K., 1848. Though an old book, quite unsurpassed. HARVEY (T. G.), _Mullyon_. Truro, 1875. CUMMINS (A. H.), _Cury and Gunwalloe_. Truro, 1875. Good, but all these books are wild in their derivation of place-names, and not too much to be trusted in their history, as, for instance, when they mistake the Breton Cornouaille for Cornwall, and relate as occurring in the latter what actually belongs to the Breton Cornouaille. ---------------------------------------------------------------- CHAPTER XVII. SMUGGLING A _cache_--Smugglers' paths--Donkeys--Hiding-places--Connivance with smugglers--A baronet's carriage--Wrecking--"Fatal curiosity"--A ballad--Excuses made for smuggling--Story by Hawker--Desperate affrays--Sub-division of labour--"Creeping"--Fogous--One at Porth-cothan. The other day I saw an old farmhouse in process of demolition in the parish of Altarnon, on the edge of the Bodmin moors. The great hall chimney was of unusual bulk, bulky as such chimneys usually are; and when it was thrown down it revealed the explanation of this unwonted size. Behind the back of the hearth was a chamber fashioned in the thickness of the wall, to which access might have been had at some time through a low walled-up doorway that was concealed behind the kitchen dresser and plastered over. This door was so low that it could be passed through only on all-fours.