St Mary's

After the first bustle and confusion, we settled down in our places, the anchor was weighed, and the Ariadne, spreading out her wings to the light and fitful breeze, crept lazily along.

if there be in the british dominions a scene the beauties of which would make a calm and durable surely it would be here i have travelled in many far lands beyond the sea but i never saw a view more exquisite nor one that gains on you more than this the cornish are justly proud of it catch a native and the chances are his first words as you hold him between your finger and thumb will be have you seen the mount it is an object of universal worship and woe betide the unlucky wight who renders not due homage to its claims there it lay proud and still as of yore centuries have passed over it since the galleys of richard of the lion's heart lay on the very spot now occupied by us and prepared to wrest it from the earl of mortain his false brother afterwards king john and there it lay solemn in its consecration of ages the object of veneration scarcely less religious than was offered upon its altars when the mystic cross upon which the weeds and lichens never grew was then worshipped as it is still seen upon its western slope and when the blessing of st michael was supposed to come down upon those who had journeyed hither to kneel and pray footnote probably produced by some acid or other chemical appliance footnote ends as we crept slowly on we had before us a grand panorama as fancy as ever drew on our left was marazion where are the beautiful and admirably conducted schools built by lady mary cole as a memorial of her late husband sir christopher footnote the mayor of marazion is said to sit always in his own light from the peculiar position of his pew at church beyond on the hill rose the grateful spire of st hilary and cuddon point and prussia cove so called from a smuggler nicknamed the king of prussia and far away in the dim distance the lizard the cabo tormentoso of the west cape of storms when the news that vasco da gama had doubled the cape was brought to alfonso of portugal according to camoens in the louisiade no cape of storms the joyful king exclaimed cape of good hope thou be for ever named and so on we went the sea around us crisped by the breeze and a fleet of mackerel boats adding life and interest to the scene our skipper hailed one of them and asked what news a french boat took seventy thousand mackerel into st mary's was the reply a mail-bag belonging to the hapless amazon was washed up yesterday at newland now close by us but it was a matter of no interest to the crawlers in comparison with a successful sweep of fish we passed in turns mousel famous for the spanish blood and for the beauty of its women and lamorna cove and boscawen cairn giving a name and title to the house of falmouth and boskena the ancestral seat of my excellent and accomplished friend mr painter and the famous logan rock and then came the land's end and then the everlasting deep with its broad unwrinkled brow the tremendous power of ocean slumbered like a child one living thing only was in sight it was the back fin of a shark that played around our bows at last it dashed away towards penberth cove and we were alone upon the waves what a weary thing is a calm at sea there on our left hand is the half-way mark between penzance and scilly the wolf that is the gulf rock and we thought it never would come in sight, and then never would go out of it.

We ought now to be at St. Mary's.

and St. Mary's is a low, dark speck upon our larboard bow, scarcely visible to the naked eye.

The poor young widow had gone below, and cried herself from sheer exhaustion to sleep, while the rest of the passengers gathered together, and told dismal tales of passages extended over many days, and of the hardships thereby entailed upon unwary travellers, as the vessel carries no provisions." at this moment we were joined by the captain a fine specimen of the english sailor i asked him in the course of conversation if hugh town the capital of the islands were considered a healthy place healthy sir replied he healthy why of course it is it must be healthy it can't help it for there is so much water He told me, however, that the cholera never came there, and though two persons with virulent smallpox once landed, the disease was confined to them and spread no further.

People certainly, as I hear, live to a great age at Scilly.

chapter four of scilly and its legends by henry james whitfeld st mary's st mary's is the capital as it were of the islands and hughetown is the capital of st mary's footnote so named for the patron saint of the abbey of tavistock it is the most curious little place in the world

if constantinople was originally called the city of the blind from the mistake committed by its founders in choosing for it the worst site in the neighbourhood hugh town has a fair prospect of being named the city of the