I visited Cornwall, for the first time, in the summer and autumn of 1850; and in the winter of the same year, I wrote this book.
At that time, the title attached to these pages was strictly descriptive of the state of the county, when my companion and I walked through it. But when, little more than a year afterwards, a second edition of this volume was called for, the all-conquering railway had invaded Cornwall in the interval, and had practically contradicted me on my own title-page.
To rechristen my work was out of the question--I should simply have destroyed its individuality. Ladies may, and do, often change their names for the better; but books enjoy no such privilege. In this embarrassing position, I ended by treating the ill-timed intrusion of the railway into my literary affairs, as a certain Abb?(who was also an author, ) once treated the overthrow of the Swedish Constitution, in the reign of Gustavus the Third. Having written a profound work, to prove that the Constitution, as at that time settled, was secure from all political accidents, the Abb?was surprised in his study, one day, by the appearance of a gentleman, who disturbed him over the correction of his last proof-sheet. "Sir!" said the gentleman; "I have looked in to inform you that the Constitution has just been overthrown." To which the Abb?replied: --"Sir! they may overthrow the Constitution, but they can't overthrow MY BOOK"--and he quietly went on with his work.
On precisely similar principles, I quietly went on with MY TITLE-PAGE.
So much for the name of the book. For the book itself, as published in its present form, I have a last word to say, before these prefatory lines come to an end.
