Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/372

 366 THE CORNWALL COAST where else. He is reported sometimes as a Dane, sometimes as an Irishman, who was thrown on the coast in a tempest, who leaped upon her horse's back behind a girl who had come to witness the wreck, and who ultimately married her. He proved to be one of the blackest villains Cornwall had ever known, but as he had a powerful gang of followers who aided him in all his misdoings, there must have been plenty as bad as he, though they might lack his gift of leadership and initiative. He is said to have chopped off a gauger's hand on the gunwale of a boat — rumour reported even worse things than this ; and he once soundly horsewhipped the parson of Kilk- harapton, who had offended him. There is also a story of his carrying a terrified tailor to " mend the devil's breeches." He departed as mysteriously as he came, after many years of vile outrage ; he " who came with the water went with the wind." It is clear that a great deal of old-time folk-lore has gathered round this name, and probably no single man must be held answerable for all the wild doings related of Cruel Coppinger. In all such traditions Hawker is a most unsafe guide ; he did not consciously " falsify the books," but he had misled many who came after, particularly the popular guide-books, by his looseness and his play of fancy. But he came to this district at a period when smuggling, if not actual wrecking and piracy, was at its height — not only in Cornwall, be it remembered, but in many other parts of the coast, such as Sussex and Kent. It was a time when the Cornish used to thank God for wrecks ; and if they did not actually lure vessels to de- struction on their cruel coasts, which it may be feared they did sometimes, they at least did