The Isles of Scilly : $b Their story, their folk & their flowersMothersole, Jessie
History
The Isles of Scilly : $b Their story, their folk & their flowers
Mothersole, Jessie
Isles of Scilly (England) -- Description and travel
To Bryher next, just to gather a few early buds of sea-pink from the
downs by Hell Bay, and to wave farewell to those we know who live in
Bryher Town.
It is as we are flying merrily along to St. Martin’s that I remember I
have made no sketch of this sailing-boat on which we have spent so
many happy hours. And yet she is a thing of beauty, and well deserves
recording. Perhaps even now it is not too late.
Did you ever try to make a sketch of a sailing-boat in full sail from
the very doubtful vantage-ground of the dinghy attached behind--with
the painter let out to its fullest extent to give you sufficient
distance? If you ever do anything so foolish (I admit it was foolish),
I would advise you to persuade all your weightiest friends to
accompany you; for so your cockleshell would gain a little in
steadiness, and dance a little less lightly on the waves. And then,
perhaps, your brush-strokes would not so often be made half an inch or
more from where you meant them to be! In my case the forepart of the
boat rose high out of the water, at intervals bobbing down with a
splash, and I had the opportunity of trying the effect of a mixture
of salt water with my paints.
I have heard a story of a lady who said, in describing a certain
painting made on the Mississippi, “I know it _must_ be like the place,
for the man who painted it had made his colours out of the earths from
the very river-banks he was painting.” On this principle sea-water
_must_ be the proper medium for painting the sea!
We must not stop long at St. Martin’s, for time is going fast, so we
will content ourselves with climbing to the top of Cruther’s Hill
above the pier, and letting our eyes, instead of our feet, roam over
the island once more.
And now to St. Agnes, which has a special corner in our hearts. So we
will sail all round it, for the wind has slightly dropped, and get a
glimpse of every part before we land in Perconger.
A flying visit to the lighthouse top, to look down once more on the
fields and gardens, rocks and headlands of the little isle; a scamper
over Wingletang Down, with the fresh sea-breeze in our faces; and a
last peep at the little lonely church by the shore. That is all there
is time for, if we wish to reach St. Mary’s before dark. And packing
still to be done!
As we sail homeward, looking back we can discern on the Gugh that
strange and fearful-looking rock, the Kittern, also called the Turk’s
Head; fearful-looking, I say, because its shape recalls to me so
strongly Watts’ dreadful Minotaur, crushing the life out of the
innocent, as he overlooks the sea.
How can I end on such a note as that! It is but a strange and idle
fancy that has come into my head; and there is nothing gloomy about
the islands to justify it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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