Cape Cornwall

We know this area well and it has a fascinating history.

The white house on the slope was once the home of 'Elephant Bill' a St Just man made famous by his actions in the Burma Campaign when he assisted the evacuation of women and children by means of elephants across hostile terrain.

Virginia Woolf stayed at the lower house when it was in use by the artist Duncan Grant. She knew this part of the country very well because she had enjoyed many childhood holidays in a house above Porthminster beach in St Ives that was rented each summer by her father. The Godrevy Lighthouse and those childhood holidays were the inspiration for her book, 'To the Lighthouse'. Everything about Cornwall was transposed to Scotland in the novel.  After publication people wrote in and complained that her research had been poor because the flora and fauna that she described did not exist in Scotland!

Large greenhouses used to occupy the lower slope above the harbour. Camellias were grown there and sent by train to Covent Garden in London. Since our last visit a beautiful new greenhouse has been constructed on part of the land. Private property - I had to peep nosily over the wall. I would have loved to have walked through the space!  The new greenhouse is painted grey, a very sensitive response to it's setting and intrudes on the area not one bit, but continues the history of what went before.

We came home with a drawing of Cape Cornwall that our friend had made years ago when he and Himself were running an annual landscape course for the Bristol Art School.

It captures a lot of memories.