Cornwall (England : County) -- Description and travel
Just round the corner from Tol Pedn is to be found one of the quaintest
little fishing villages, Porthgwarra, where a tunnel has been cut
through the solid rock to allow the fishermen to get down to their
boats. The rocks are fine red granite, and with the brilliant blue of
the sea on a sunny day and the yellow ochres of sand and sail there are
"ready-made" pictures at every turn. Looking out from the darkness of
the tunnel the colours are enhanced. One of the most attractive points
about the many mighty caverns along the coast are the clean-cut,
brilliantly clear pictures to be seen from their dark interiors.
All these and many other curious and fantastic things may be found by
those sure of eye and foot. For one of the greatest charms of Cornwall
is its variety and unexpectedness, at all events as regards the coast.
For a hundred people who go to Land's End it is safe to say only one
visits the Lizard. Though the usual run of tourist conveyances have
found it out, it is more difficult to get to than the western extremity,
and is a little out of the way. Yet in the opinion of those who have
seen both the Lizard beats even the fantastic scenery to the southward
of Land's End.
The approach is nothing short of lamentable in its dulness. Except for
an oasis about half-way across Goonhilly Downs, the wide, flat,
dead-alive plateau occupying the heel of Cornwall, there is nothing to
note. Even right on to the end the feeling of dismay grows. The meek
green fields carry one down almost to the shore, for though we have come
across a bit of heath _en route_ which recalls how repeatedly we have
been told that the _Erica vagans_ grows here and nowhere else, we leave
this behind and wind once more between grass fields toward the dreary
little cluster of houses called Lizard-town, which looks not unlike a
forsaken coast-guard station from the distance. To reach the famous
Housel Bay Hotel we must branch off before getting to the town, and
following a lane which looks as if it led merely to a lighthouse, we
come quite suddenly on the building, facing due south in the centre of a
little bay. Not until we have passed the hotel and got out to the cliff
paths does the surprising interest of the scenery begin to unveil
itself, and the orderly sanity of the fields, which vexed our eager
souls, is forgotten. On the two horns of the bay stand the flashing
lighthouse and Lloyds' signal station. We are here at the most
southerly, as we have just been at the most westerly, point of our
country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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