less Silurian or Ivernian; the traces, however, of this
early race are few. The population now is less pure
than on the mainland. Not only were there Irish
colonists, but it is said that in the Civil Wars a Bedfordshire regiment was sent there—and forgotten; so the soldiers looked about for comely Scilly maids, married, and were content to be no more remembered
in the adjacent island of Great Britain. In 1649 Sir
John Grenville employed Scilly as a great nursery for
privateers, and so swept the seas that the Channel
trade was seriously injured. Parliament at length
fitted out and despatched an expedition under Blake,
and in June, 1651, compelled Sir John Grenville to
surrender.
The islands belong to the Duchy of Cornwall, and thereby leased to the late Mr. Augustus Smith, who, firmly imbued with the notion that men must be manufactured by education rather than allowed to bring themselves up in independence, transported the population from the smaller islands and planted them about the schools. No doubt that the native originality, freshness, and force will be drilled out of the new generation, and they will all spell and think, and write and act alike. It is, however, sad to notice on islands now deserted the ruins of ancient farms.
The Scilly Isles are a great seat of the flower trade; previously early potatoes were grown there, but now these are imported.
Of flowers, narcissi and anemones are chiefly grown, and in the open, though large numbers of flowers are now under glass. As soon as the blooms
