A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and CornwallBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
History
A book of the west. Volume 1, Devon : $b being an introduction to Devon and Cornwall
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Devon (England)
Although both in Devon and Cornwall there is great independence and
a total absence of that servility of manner which one meets with in
other parts of England, it would be a vast mistake to suppose that a
West Country man is disrespectful to those who are his superiors--if
he has reason to recognise their superiority; but he does not like
a "foreigner," especially one from the North Country. He does not
relish his manner, and this causes misunderstanding and mutual
dislike. He is pleased to have as his pass'n, as his squire, as a
resident in his neighbourhood, a man whom he knows all about, as to
who were his father and his grandfather, as also whence he hails. A
clergyman who comes from a town, or from any other part of England,
has to learn to understand the people before they will at all take
to him. "I have been here five years," said a rector one day to me,
a man transferred from far, "and I don't understand the people yet,
and until I understand them I am quite certain to be miscomprehended
by them."
The West Country man must be met and addressed as an equal. He
resents the slightest token of approach _de haut en bas_, but he
never presumes; he is always respectful and knows his place; he
values himself, and demands, and quite rightly, that you shall show
that you value him.
The other day a bicyclist was spinning down the road to Moreton
Hampstead. Not knowing quite where he was, and night approaching, he
drew up where he saw an old farmer leaning on a gate.
"I say, you Johnnie, where am I? I want a bed."
"You'm fourteen miles from Wonford Asylum," was the quiet response,
"and fourteen from Newton Work'us, and fourteen from Princetown
Prison, and I reckon you could find quarters in any o' they--and
suitable."
[Illustration: CLOVELLY FISHERMEN]
With regard to the Cornish people, I can but reiterate what has
already been said relative to the Western folk generally. What
differences exist in character are not due to difference of race,
but to that of occupation. The bulk of Cornishmen in the middle and
west have been associated with mines and with the sea, and this is
calculated to give to the character a greater independence, and
also to confer a subtle colour, different in kind to that which is
produced by agricultural labour. If you take a Yorkshireman from
one side of the Calder or Aire, where factory life is prevalent,
and one from the other side, where he works in the fields, you will
find as great, if not a greater, difference than you will between
a Devonshire and a Cornish man. Compare the sailors and miners on
one side of the Tamar with those on the other, and you will find no
difference at all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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