Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-05

from the height where you stand, the ocean
beyond, shining and blue and still; rvthmic
reaches of incoming tide-waves, miles in
length, advancing and retreating and break
lag softly upon the shelving sands in tiny
ridges of sparkling spume; and here, TO the
west, q great mass of jumbled gray-o!d st.
Ives crouching in little pocket of the
shadowy glen, sleeping away the centuries,
unconscious of the thunderous sea
Up here among the terraced villas you
can form little idea of the quaint old town:
The great road Jumps into 1t at leap, and
is broken by the fall into the oldest closes
and wynds Of any coastwise nook in Eng
land. One could almsst hurl stone across
its crowded tiled roofs; and vet it houses
fully 1000 people. The streets are 80 mar
row, the pavements so meager, such queer
turns are made, such shadowy arcades are
penetrated, that the surest-footed stranger
pedestrian will meet many q bump and
bang In most careful descent.
Homes Thickly Nested Together
Then when you have reached something
like level, you have simply increased
your difficulties. All the lower thorough
fares are scarcely more than shadowy foot
paths, leading bewilderingly from some
where to nowhere. This one, opening
promisingly, brings you squarely against q
solid wall of rock. That one, in half q
dozen PAGES. lands you upon fiat root,
from which you may easily step into the
harbor a hundred feet beneath. Another
winds about a single structure windowless
as tenth century fortress. Descending
another, you find q nest of homes whose
roofs are the passageway of street above.
Dozens lead squarely into open doors of
fshermen's homes Many are like galleries
before others Some wind through houses
where living rooms of the same house will
be found at either side of public passage.
And then in what odd hooks the little
shops will be found. There is not single
street 100 yards in length where half
dozen shops are continuously located. Even
in these you must needs often ascend or
descend story or more. The most are
literally hidden or perched in outlandish
and out-of-the-way spots, where. if not
stumbled upon, one must repeatedly come
with guide or find rediscovery hopeless.
Here will be one perched in half-timbered
Elizabethan projection, away up there three
or four stories from the street, and you can
not find an entrance. And there one will
be seen as manv stories beneath tiny
esplanaded way, but apparently you cannot
reach it without rope and tackle. Others
are where kitchens should be- And still
others Unexpectedly confront you from
dormer WINDOWS.
Everything Turned Around.
Everything of this sort seems bewi!der-
ingly reversed from its proper order. But
nothing ever seems to be bought or sold in
old St. Ives; the artists gloat over the curl
GUS tumble; and it is all most winsome and
charming to the stranger.
If you come at last through this laby-
rinth to the waterside, you will gaze back
along the dormers penthouses and roofs
of the strange old city, and up and on to
its terraced heights with increased enthusi-
asm for its rare quaintness and curious
aspects Tiny towers show here and
there as if outjutting from natural rock.
Bits of luxurIant foliage and masses of
vines seem to spring from the roofs like
rich clumps of emerald moss. Spires
and wondrously high peaked roofs stand
out against the gray and green back
ground like spearheads of unpublished steel.
Above all, the handsome terraces and the
grand old heights, where once the beacon
fires were lighted.
Gray and old as is this Cornish fisher
town, but two bits Of extreme antiquity re-
main. just in the rear of the White Hart
inn by the wharfside is huge pile of
greenish slate rock. Built upon this rock,
which forms its basement, is tiny ancient
stone structure known as earn Glaze House.
1t was the stronghold of a smuggling, free
booting family in Queen Anue's time, and
the myriad weird fisher and sea-faring
legends of ST. Ives have nearly all had their
origin in, or bear some reference to, this
grewsome old structure.
The parish church, built straight above