It is interesting to know the total number of Cornish folk who flocked to the defence of their country in this crisis. In the year 1806 there were enrolled in Cornwall no less than 8,362 men and 149 officers, whilst the total effective force of the volunteer army in Great Britain at the same period was 370,860, divided as follows: cavalry, 31,771; artillery, 10,133; infantry, 328,956. The Looe artillery numbered seventy men. At Polperro, close by, there was a large force of “sea-fencibles,” as they were called, armed with pikes; as well as heavy artillery under the command of a naval captain. Details of the uniform worn by the East and West Looe Artillery, which was commanded by a Captain Bond, have been fortunately handed down to us. It was, we are told, “blue with red facings, like the regular artillery (what glory!), but with plain buttons. The men,” we are further told, “were practised in the infantry exercise when not engaged with cannon. The latter were naval eighteen pounders, fixed in the Church-end battery at East Looe. The men were provided with clothes and had pay on those days when they were paraded, but the officers had no pay and provided their clothes at their own cost.” Such is a fairly vivid picture of the times when Looe was a bustling place. But nowadays it has no such exciting incidents to disturb or stir up the “sleepy hollow” character of its existence, although at one time the place was engaged not only in contraband trade on a truly magnificent scale, but enjoyed quite a large legitimate trade with the ports of Eastern Europe. Except for its fishing fleet, which ventures as far afield as the Irish coast on occasion, and the coming and going of a trading brig or tramp steamer, the pretty harbour, which lies as it were in a cleft between the hills, whose midway slopes are tree-clad, preserves little indication of the bustling life of former times; but, all the same, it is a spot in which to linger, and a snug harbourage in almost all weathers. Polperro is but a short six sea miles from Looe, and is too delightsome a place to be passed by without threading its narrow entrance of less than sixty feet between the piers, which makes it a veritable “needle’s eye” not easily to be passed through save in a moderate and fair wind. [Illustration: LOOE] The name is said to be derived from Pol or Pool, and Perro supposed to be a corruption of Peter, thus meaning Peter’s Pool, or perhaps Peter’s Port. Old Leland describes it as “a fischer towne with a peere,” but after a visit to it most people will agree that the description does the place but scant justice, for indeed Polperro is a very charming old-world spot.