Tintagel Castle Wiilliam Trost Richards, a Philadelphia artist, who visited in 1878 (wikimedia, et.al.)
Many families will be making for the Cornish coast this weekend, searching for sandy beaches, rock pools, ice creams, Cornish pasties and exhilarating cliff walks (preferably in sunshine).
Alfred, Lord Tennyson visited Cornwall many times, finding inspiration there for his great Arthurian suite of poems, The Idylls of the King, with its tales of King Arthur's court, based at Tintagel, according to the legend.
Edryn travels to King Arthur's Court Gustav Dore engraving for Idylls of the King 1868
It was some ninety years later that our family first made the long journey down to Cornwall. Maybe Tennyson would have visited Stonehenge - where we could just park by the road then and cross the meadow to touch the stones in awe and wonder.
Victorian visitors at Stonehenge
He would know that Queen Victoria expressly wore Honiton lace on her wedding dress to support the local industry, where we smiled at "Ye Olde Honitone Lace Shoppe":
Queen Victoria in her Wedding Dress (of 1840) Anniversary portrait by Franz X. Winterhalter 1847
and perhaps he was also kept awake on his journey by town clocks striking every quarter all night long, as we once were at Okehampton.
and perhaps he was also kept awake on his journey by town clocks striking every quarter all night long, as we once were at Okehampton.
In late August, we climbed the tortuous path to Tintagel's ancient ruins, returning decades later with my own young children, too nervous for their safety on the precipitous slopes to enjoy it fully, but the mystique of the ancient site and its spectacular views remains. A new footbridge now links the two parts of the headland, and excavations have unearthed ancient slates, one with a mysterious Latin inscription: "Artignou father of a descendant of Coll has had (this) made". (see english heritage.org.uk)
And when I think of Tintagel's cliffs and the seas around it, I am reminded of Tennyson's 1851 poem The Eagle:
"Ring'd in the azure world he stands.
The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls,
He watches from his mountain walls
And like a thunderbolt he falls."
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