The Road Goes Ever On

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Lanyon Quoit

Cornwall has scores of megalithic sites; we visited just a major few. Many have been destroyed or re-cycled into fences, fence-posts, houses, barns, scratching posts, etc. Lanyon Quoit is the largest of Cornwall's dolmens, but it is really out there, on an unnamed road between two hamlets, in or very near Bodmin Moor. We finished up so late we wound up "camping" at the intersection (the wide part of a "Y") of two unnamed roads. Fortunately, there is not much traffic in these places, and the morning view of St. Michael's was great.

Lanyon Quoit (dolmen's are called "quoits" here); tall

enough (for me) to walk under

Another view; originally buried, of course

The National Trust is everywhere; but where was the gift

shop and the membership station? and the cafe and the
garden store? and who gifted Lanyon Quoit to the Trust?
and where's the folly?

Land's End

We were not the only people there; there were perhaps a dozen others. Land's End is much larger than John O' Groats, but much more cheesy-touristy. Fortunately, almost all the attractions and shops were closed for the season. Unfortunately, and much to our surprise and disappointment, there was no Land's End outlet store. Perhaps we can finally catch the London Fog outlet in London.

Cliffs at Land's End

A rough, wild, but beautiful coastline

The usual sign; took me a long time to figure out what

D ARTFORD was...someplace in France?

Longships lighthouse, a mile and a half out from the

mainland, as a squall approaches

Merry Maidens and Tregriffian

After St. Michael's Mount, we continued on

west and stopped at Cornwall's largest stone

circle, the Merry Maidens, and then at a

dolmen, Tregriffian, just down the road.

Well, actually, under the road; above, a very

old-looking cross

The Merry Maidens

Huge stones in nearby fences...wonder where they came

from...?

Vicki in the gorse

Tregriffian

They built the road right over it!

Deep cup-marks on a stone at Tregriffian

Look closely, maybe use your own viewer-

apparatus, but the figure cut in here is not a

cross, I think, but just a human figure

St. Michael's Mount

Cornwall's St. Michael's Mount; yes, England has one too,
not as large, not as well known, but there it is, on the south

Cornish coast, and we saw it on a cloudy November 3;

from the mainland; legend, as well as medieval chroniclers,

hold that the sea did not encroach until the 11th or 12th

centuries, AD; global warming

Up closer

Village of Marazion, linked to the island by a man-made

causeway, passable only at low tide

People on the causeway

Kite-surfing nearby

Monetized version; two nights later we were parked on a

high ridge and awoke to this scene in the distance

Eden

The Eden Project is a huge non-profit botanical theme park--

hundreds of acres, thousands of specimens from around the

world, several "biomes" including the largest conservatory

ever built, great contemporary architecture, art and scultpure,

all with an educational and social agenda. Green. We spent

most of the day at Eden, which is west of Fowey, in a

former china clay open-pit mine...talk about reclamation!

It is an incredible display and impressive educational

undertaking. Above, in 2000, the china clay open pit mine,

"England at its rapacious and destructive worst, ripping

both land and people apart, all for the creation of wealth,"

as the project founder said

More recently--since this photo was taken, several new

buildings have gone up and the terraces are entirely

planted-in, with paths, exhibits, etc.

In the rain forest biome, the world's largest conservatory

Lunch, locally-grown pasty and sausages and potatoes, and

cauliflower, and carrots

In the Mediterranean biome, probably the only rhododendrons
I'll see in bloom on this trip

Ice-skating rink; its rationale is a little unclear; the other on-

site sport is rock-climbing on the old mine's walls

In one of the outside biomes, bananas growing in Cornwall,

in November!

From the "core" building, looking back up the mine/canyon

toward the two interior biomes

One of the better and larger gift shops around

Castle Dore

Monday morning we worked our way on down to the

southern Cornish coast, intending to drive out to Land's End,

and then back the north coast. Near the harbor village of

Fowey we stopped at the Iron Age hill fort known as Castle

Dore. All that remains are the bank and ditch and some sense

of size. Castle Dore traditionally is associated with King

Mark and thus with the Tristan and Isolde legend. Given the

Wagnerian associations, I had to see it. Now we have to

look for Tristan's castle in Brittany!

Historical marker

Ditch and bank

Looking across the interior

Lanhydrock, 2009

Our last great house, Lanhydrock, in western Cornwall, was in many ways our best. (All the great houses close by November 1). It is by no means the largest, the most historic, the best art or best gardens. It does have 50 rooms open to the public, more than any other, completely furnished as it was in the high Victorian era, the best kitchen and servants areas we have seen, and a family, particularly in Victorian and Edwardian times, you come to care about. The house itself was begun in the mid 17th century. Most of the furnishings, as I said, are Victorian or slightly later.

Lanhyrock was among the Robartes family's vast holdings, including a great house in London, Wimpole House (our first great house, way back in August), and something on the order of 100,000 acres, with all the usual farms, villages, houses, etc. Cornwall's richest family. By Victorian times, they had gotten into politics, as members of the House of Commons and prominent Liberals, into temperance and social reform. The heir and great hope of the family was "Tommy" Robartes, whom the Conservatives didn't even challenge in elections. Tommy enlisted in 1914, insisted on being at the front lines, and died at Loos in 1915, of wounds incurred in No Man's Land, saving one of his men. Next in line also did not survive the war, and the last brother, Arthur, evenutally donated it all to the National Trust.

The family was devastated by Tommy's death. His rooms were closed and not re-opened until the house came to the Trust in the 1970s. His suitcase appears just as it was when it was returned from France. Sad and moving.

The most impressive room in the house is the great hall, mid-17th century, perhaps 150 feet long, now a library/music/art room, but covered by incredibly detailed vaulted ceiling with reliefs depicting scenes from the Bible. We were so taken with Lanhydrock that we closed the place, more or less, too late to find any better camping than the local rugby club's carpark.

Sometimes, just getting to a site can be a challenge; here we
are about to cross an ancient twisty bridge over a serious river;

the bridge is exactly 7 feet wide; the Grey Wanderer is 6 foot

eight inches, not including mirrors; but we made it

The gatehouse; was the original building, an

Elizabethan hunting "cabin"

Lanhydrock, from the entry gatehouse

Earliest date on the house

In the kitchen area (half a dozen large rooms), the largest

spit we have yet seen...9 feet across

Olympic-sized billiard table

The childrens' rooms were incredible; this is their classroom

About 1/3 of the drawing room

The attached parish church

Formal gardens

More gardens

Family chair from Queen Elizabeth's

coronation

Last of the line

Vicki adds:

Swindon, England November 7, 2009

I wanted to tell the story of a woman I met last week in the campground in Plymouth. She was sitting in the bathroom reading when I went to take a shower. Since that is pretty unusual she explained that she was tent camping and it was much warmer to sit in the bathroom plus there was better light. I asked her where she was from and she said Albany, New York. Now I know that most of our friends and relatives think we are terribly adventurous (which we are not really) compared to many others that we meet. This lady was nearing sixty, about 30 lbs heavier than I, single and has been traveling the world for almost ten years. She told me that she had been a medical transcriptionist but upon reaching her fifties found that no one would hire her, so she decided she could live as cheaply traveling as staying put. Early on she carried a backpack and stayed in hostels, but her shoulders won't manage a heavy pack anymore and the hostels have become too expensive. So now she travels mostly by bus with a wheely duffel and stays in campgrounds. She spends her days going on walks that she can reach through public busses.. She had just finished 4 months in England doing most of the footpaths in the two national parks, Dartmoor and Exmoor, in southwestern England and was taking the ferry to Portugal the next day. She spends 3 months a year in Albany taking care of her elderly mother while her sister travels.

Anyway I was just floored. I guess where there is a will, there is a way. But I can't imagine being that adventurous.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Halloween

We were in a real campground Saturday night, Halloween, and alas, there were no trick/treaters to see my marvelous costume. Perhaps I can use it again when we visit Transylvania next year.