CORNISH WRECKERS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 242, 12 October 1908, Page 6

CORNISH WRECKERS.

Among the many interesting features, in the August Windsor is an article entitled "Some Literary Landmarks on the Cornish. Coast." The writer says:— "Wrecking, in all its ■'diabolical in*-, famy, was formerly practised at Morwenstow, among other place% along the Cornish coast; and when feobert Stephen Hawker,,the vicar, first attempted to rescue the shipwrecked crews, he experienced great difficulty in obtaining assistance from the villagers. Oftentimes this was only procurable - either by threats or bribes. Such inhumanity seems scarcely credible at the present day, but then it found expression in the brutal couplet:— ■ Save a stranger from the sea, And he will turn your enemy. "Amongst some older inhabitants it is questionable whether the wrecking spirit has entirely died out. In the summer of 1894, the writer inquired of an old inn-keeper in the'district concerning thb number of wrecks on the coast.- ',im-glide few,' he replied, and added, 'But not half enough.' 'Why?' 'Because we have the chance of doing a bit. We save the lives, of course^ and then look out for ourselves. I remember 46 years ago a ship called the Eliza went aground. She came from Liverpool, and was laden with clothing, xhe people all round the district had .clothes for years. There was a song' composed, something like this:—'. When the Eliza was washed ashore, She was robbed by rich and poor. "Substantiating* the story afterwards, a farmer's wife said ihat, as a child, she remembered the wreck. Her father had a box of the .woollen stuffs, stockings, etc., arid, for fear of the King's men, hid it under the cottage floor. Another box he \placed in a hole dug in the garden, but the next day it had been surreptituously removed I She rendered the doggerel: When: the Eliza went ashore She fed the hungry and clothed the poor. " 'When we wore the clothes,' she added, 'the neighbours pointed, and remarked, 'There* goes the Eliza.' "Four years afterwards, I* came across a .village tradesman who traced the authorship to his father. He commenced the lines as follows:— The Eliza of Liverpool was driven on shore, With wine for the gentlemen and clothes for the poor.