Chapter 8. Liverpool, Salisbury & Penzance.

17 - 10 Raining. Foggy.

First job , find a B and B. No problems there. I was finding that the youth hostels were situated quite a way from the railway stations, so at this stage decided to opt for the more expensive B and B's. (stretching that shoestring just a bit)

I still remember a poem my landlady quoted on hearing my name.

I do not like thee Doctor Fell.
The reason why I cannot tell.
But this I know I know full well,
I do not love thee Doctor Fell.

Written by poet Thomas Brown in the 1600's after an altercation with the then Dean of Oxford Dr. John Fell while a student there. It later became a Mother Goose nursery rhyme.I had never heard it before. Not surprising really, not much of a poem, the story behind it was interesting, but I won't go in to it here.

Liverpool struck me as a dreary depressing place, maybe on account of the weather but I found most English cities are brown and dull, especially in the rain and fog, and if I lived there it would have to be in the country. Without the greenery the stone buildings create a sombre look.

Liverpool Art Gallery where John Lennon studied.

Everywhere in this city one is constantly reminded of the great pride they have in the Beatles. Sculptures appear in the most unlikely places. For example here resting casually on a park bench is Eleanor Rigby.

Eleanor Rigby and friend.

Another one I found in the middle of Cavern Walk Shopping Centre. It is hard to forget while visiting that this is the birthplace of the Beatles.

The Fab Four.

This is the original Cavern Club where it all began. Unfortunately it was demolished to make way for the underground railway which I believe never eventuated.

The inscription reads....FOUR LADS WHO SHOOK THE WORLD!

It is now faithfully reproduced directly across the street.

The new Cavern Club.

As a huge fan of their music it was wonderful to wander around soaking up the atmosphere. They didn't start their lives in such abject poverty as Elvis, but their rise to fame was just as remarkable.

Strawberry Field Forever.

Strawberry Field was a Salvation Army orphanage, opened in 1936. John Lennon used to play in the grounds after school.

Eleanor Rigby's Family Grave.

This stone is thought to have inspired the haunting song written by Paul Mc Cartney although he denies it.

Next day 18th. I did a tour of all THE places to see, Strawberry Field, Penny Lane, plus houses they lived in and schools they attended.

Louise and I came back two years later and saw it all again. We wandered around the roundabout, the barber shop, the bank in Penny Lane. Such fun.

Penny Lane.

Louise outside the Barber Shop.

The Penny Lane Bank.

Time to make a move, train to catch so off to.......

SALISBURY.

18-10 Wet.

Here my itinerary went haywire for the first time. Penzance is an eight hour trip from Liverpool so decided to switch and visit Salisbury.

Arrived at 3.30pm and booked into The Farthings, then went straight to the Cathedral. A wondrous sight, another of my much admired Constable paintings, now to see it in the flesh so to speak.

Salisbury Cathedral.

It is a beautiful building.Unlike most other cathedrals which evolved gradually over the centuries, it was built within a single generation. Begun in 1220 and finished bar the tower and spire in 1258. The spire is England's tallest. The medieval builders constructed it on foundations only 5-6 feet deep in wet ground to take the strain of 6,400 tonnes.

In 1668 Sir Christopher Wren found that it was leaning 30 inches out of plumb and had iron rods inserted to brace it. When they were replaced 200 years later no further movement had occurred. Where was he when our City Hall was built?!

One of many Constable paintings of the Cathedral.

This was painted a year after his wife Maria's death. This could explain the dark mournful colours.

The Cathedral at night.

There are many treasures inside. I found one of only four remaining copies of the Magna Carta.

The Magna Carta.

It really doesn't matter that it's unreadable as it is all in latin. The Magna Carta contains 63 clauses written on parchment. Only three are still law today, the most famous being.....

No man shall be seized or imprisoned or stripped of his rights or possessions or outlawed or exiled.

Nor will we proceed with force against him except by lawful judgement of his equals or by the law of the land.

To no one will we sell , to no one deny or delay right or justice.

The other two clauses still being law today deal with...

1. Defending the freedom of the rights of the English Church.
2. Confirming the liberties and customs of London and other towns.

This is supposed to be the best preserved copy of the four. It is to be found in the library of the cathedral.

Another view of this magnificent building.

I found my time spent around this ancient cathedral very rewarding. Another interesting discovery was the oldest working clock in the world.1386. Its main purpose was to strike a bell at precise times.It has no dial.Framework is held together with metal dowels and pegs as nuts and bolts were yet to be invented.

The 1386 clock. On display in the cathedral.

The next day I set out for Stonehenge by bus, another part of the world I was looking forward to seeing. This huge mass has been the source of conjecture forever.

How did they get there? Who put them there? Why are they there? It would have been impossible to transport those mighty stones...and so on.

So now I was going to see this wonder for myself.

Stonehenge.

This prehistoric temple probably dates to the New Stone Age (about 1,800 B C.) Over 1,000 years later the Druids flourished and members of the order conduct a ceremony on Midsummer Day.

Another pilfered flower.

There is no degree of certainty what it was for but it surely wasn't placed there for any casual purpose. Only something very important to the ancient Druids or whoever would have made it worth the effort that it took to construct Stonehenge.

I found it all fascinating, obviously a place of worship. But..... been there done that. Time to move on to ........

PENZANCE.

19-10 Perfect.

The train trip was spectacular regarding scenery. We crossed over the Tamar Bridge into Cornwall, a beautiful part of the country.. The train runs right along the waterfront between Teigmouth and Dawlish in Devon where we seemed to be skimming over the water, a beautiful sight.

Arrived at Penzance at 5pm and decided to look for a B and B, as usual the youth hostel was two miles out of town. I found Harbour Lights near the station.

Harbour Lights.

The landlord (I use the term loosely) in my eyes was a scream, in his, a lonely broken man whose wife had left him, who had no interest in the B and B business. I made him laugh so he thought it a great idea to take me down to the local for a night out to cheer him up. I declined the invitation and had an early night.

He came home blind drunk, slept in so the only other guest Richard and I had to wake him at 9.15 am and ask for our breakfast. Richard was a frequent visitor so knew the family background.

After waiting forever, as he had to visit the grocer for milk and eggs etc. we were finally fed and on our way.

The magnificent Cornish Coast.

I set off to find Land's End, enjoying the beautiful weather. The landscape was all I expected, so rugged and isolated.

Land's End.10,780 miles from home. A long way in anyone's language.

The very beginning or the very end.

I took this photo from a tiny rope bridge.

More rugged coastline.

I caught a bus to the nearby village of Marazion, to see the beautiful Mount St. Michael.This vision had caught my eye while passing on the train and was a must see.

View from the train.

I was taken across by rowboat but there is a causeway at low tide.I shared the boat with a group of English tourists who, when they found out I was Australian, eagerly wanted to know not about our beautiful country, but rather what was happening with the T V drama Prisoner or Cell block H as they knew it. Their series was a long way behind ours and was a huge hit overseas so I was able to put them in the picture.

A beautiful watercolour.

The same view in real life.

Walking up to the castle was well worth the effort but I was out of breath climbing all those stairs.

One of the most spectacular landmarks on the Cornish coast it rises 300 feet from the sea in Mount Bay.

An apparition of the Archangel Michael was said to have appeared to fishermen in 495 and by the 6th century was a religious centre. Four miracles were thought to have occurred in the early 1200's. After the Norman conquest the Abbey was granted to the Benedictine monks of Mont St. Michael in France and the church on the summit was built and became a major pilgrimage destination. In 1659 it became the property of the St. Aubyn family. The National Trust took control of the island in 1954.

This was a beautiful place to visit and I'm glad I had the opportunity.

Back on mainland Marazion I indulged in a Cornish ice cream... a huge concoction of ice cream topped with Cornish clotted cream and strawberry jam, YUMMY. While standing there trying to get my mouth around this delicacy I noticed a bus rounding the corner with the destination board 'HELSTON.' and waved the driver down hoping he would let me and my huge ice cream climb on board, and he did. So off on another adventure .
Why Helston? As a child I grew up surrounded by music and the Helston Floral Dance was a favourite.

As I walked home on a Summer night

When stars in Heav'n were shining bright

Far away from the footlight's glare

Into the sweet and scented air

Of a quaint old Cornish town..... and so on.

The song tells of the festival held in "that quaint old Cornish town." which I missed by a few months as it is held on May 8th each year. People come from all over to witness the passing of winter into spring. It is one of the oldest of British customs celebrated today. Pagan in origin.

The procession.

At noon the principal dance begins. This is an exclusive affair, participation by invitation only. Ladies are required to wear full length dresses, hats and gloves, and their partners morning clothes, white tie and top hats.

This was such an unexpected pleasure for me to visit this lovely village and if I hadn't seen that bus I would have missed it. I had no idea it was so close.

Back to Harbour Lights where I tasted my first real Cornish pastie. Like my ice cream it was huge, and I had to throw half away. My shoestring budget frowned on waste.

A trip to the laundrette to prepare for my next adventure. I stayed an extra night as I fell in love with Penzance,but must keep moving. This was to be my last night on British soil.

I think my landlord had an early night as he was bright eyed and bushy tailed and we we had no trouble getting breakfast .

One of my favourite authors as a teenager had been Daphne Du Maurier, and she wrote a lot about Cornwall. I loved Jamaica Inn, all about smugglers, the rugged Cornish coast, this dark mysterious Inn. On my way to Reading to catch the coach to Heathrow, I saw the Inn from my window. I had no idea it was real.

Jamaica Inn.

Goodbye Cornwall, Hello Frankfurt.