The Cornish Riviera   By: Sidney Heath (1872-)

Described by SIDNEY HEATH

Pictured by E. W. HASLEHUST

[Illustration]

BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED

LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY

[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO FOWEY HARBOUR]

BEAUTIFUL ENGLAND

VOLUMES READY

BATH AND WELLS BOURNEMOUTH AND CHRISTCHURCH CAMBRIDGE CANTERBURY CHESTER AND THE DEE THE CORNISH RIVIERA DARTMOOR DICKENS LAND THE DUKERIES THE ENGLISH LAKES EXETER FOLKESTONE AND DOVER HAMPTON COURT HASTINGS AND NEIGHBOURHOOD HEREFORD AND THE WYE THE ISLE OF WIGHT THE NEW FOREST NORWICH AND THE BROADS OXFORD THE PEAK DISTRICT RIPON AND HARROGATE SCARBOROUGH SHAKESPEARE LAND SWANAGE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD THE THAMES WARWICK AND LEAMINGTON THE HEART OF WESSEX WINCHESTER WINDSOR CASTLE YORK

BEAUTIFUL IRELAND

LEINSTER ULSTER MUNSTER CONNAUGHT

BEAUTIFUL SWITZERLAND

LUCERNE VILLARS AND CHAMPERY CHAMONIX LAUSANNE AND ITS ENVIRONS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Page Entrance to Fowey Harbour Frontispiece

Truro Cathedral from the River 8

Polruan 14

The Harbour, Fowey 20

View of Falmouth Harbour 26

St. Michael's Mount 32

On the Lerryn River 38

Penzance from Newlyn Harbour 42

In the Harbour, Newlyn 46

Land's End 50

In St. Ives Harbour 54

The Cliffs, Newquay 58

[Illustration]

THE CORNISH RIVIERA

PLYMOUTH TO LAND'S END

"By Tre, Pol, and Pen, You may know the Cornishmen."

The majority of our English counties possess some special feature, some particular attraction which acts as a lodestone for tourists, in the form of a stately cathedral, striking physical beauty, or a wealth of historical or literary associations. There are large districts of rural England that would have remained practically unknown to the multitude had it not been for their possession of some superb architectural creation, or for the fame bestowed upon the district by the makers of literature and art. The Bard of Avon was perhaps the unconscious pioneer in the way of providing his native town and county with a valuable asset of this kind. The novels of Scott drew thousands of his readers to the North Country, and those of R. D. Blackmore did the same for the scenes so graphically depicted in Lorna Doone ; while Thomas Hardy is probably responsible for half the number of tourists who visit Dorset.

Cornwall, on the contrary, is unique, in that, despite its wealth of Celtic saints, crosses, and holy wells, it does not possess any overwhelming attractions in the way of physical beauty (the coast line excepted), literary associations, beautiful and fashionable spas, or mediæval cathedrals.

History, legends, folklore, and traditions it has in abundance, while probably no portion of south west England is so rich in memorials of the Celtic era. At the same time one can quite understand how it was that, until comparatively recent years, the Duchy land was visited by few tourists, as we count them to day; and why the natives should think and speak of England as a distant, and indeed a foreign, country. Certain is it that less than a quarter of a century ago those who crossed the Tamar and journeyed westward into the sparsely populated Cornish towns and villages, were hailed as "visitors from England".