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CHAPTER XVI.

THE LIZARD

Meneage—The meaning of Lizard—The character of the district—Helston—The Furry Day—Pixy pots—Loe Pool—Tennyson—Serpentine—The Cornish heath—The Strapwort—Other plants—Woad—S. Piran and the woad—Windmill—Peter Odger—Mullion—Tregonning Hill—S. Ruan—S. Winwaloe—One and All—Gunwalloe Church—Cury—The colonisation of Brittany—Wrecks.

THE learned Scotus," says Addison in the 174th number of the Tatler, "to distinguish the race of mankind, gives to every individual of that species what he calls a seity, something peculiar to himself, which makes him different from all other persons in the world."

What the learned Scotus said of individuals may as truly be said of localities; and indisputably the seity of the Lizard is most pronounced.

In itself the district is not beautiful. It consists of a tableland elevated a few hundred feet above the sea, very bald and treeless, and without hills to break its uniformity.

Properly it is not the Lizard at all, but Meneage, i.e. the land of the Minachau, the monks. Lizard—Lis-arth, the high-placed or lofty Lis(court)—applies merely to the head and point where stands now Lizard Town, and where was formerly the enclosed

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