Page:Cornwall (Salmon).djvu/68

 CORNWALL proved by the fact that in 1746 a sailor landing in Brittany found tnat the peasants there under- stood his Cornish speech better than his own countrymen. Those who wish to study the subject must turn to the works of Lluyd, Borlase, Gwavas, Tonkin, Pryce, Williams, Whitley Stokes, and Jago. The literary re- mains of the tongue are very slight — a few miracle-plays or interludes, a few sacred poems, proverbs, fables. There are also the manu- missions of slaves given in the Bodmin Gospels, not of literary quality, certainl}-, but interesting samples of the language. As the language has gone, so the dialect is going. A uniform English will be the result of universal education and omnipresent journalism. Bad grammar, vulgarity, slang, may survive long — they form some hideous compounds in our great cities ; but the picturesque and archaic purity of genuine dialect is becoming a thing of the past. Cornish dialect of the past century will be found admirably repro- duced in the tales of Tregellas ; its present condition is faithfully represented in the works of existing Cornish novelists. Many old English words, and some Celtic, yet survive ; traces of Elizabethan and even of Chaucerian England may be found in the speech of this far-western county. X. Cornish Worthies In a county whose entire population is only that of a fair-sized town, we must not expect 50