Morning journal and courier., 1892-07-02
wAKEmAN,s wANDERINGs.

| Ancient st. Ives-Loitering In -ths
Olden Cornish Seaport Town, Fa'
nous In Nursery Rhyme Memory
GlImpses OF Glorious scenery, Odd
Bits OF A Antiquity and the Noted PHI
chard Fishery of the western Corn.
fsh Coast.
ST. IVES, Cornwall, June IS.
| To the Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER.
In the tender realm of nursery-rhyms
lore there is no pleasanter mysticism
than that which clings to the pretty riddle
Gas was going to st. Ives
met a man with seven wives.
Each wife had seven sacks;
Each sack had seven cats;
Each cat had seven kits;
Kits, cats sacks and wives
How many were there going to st. Ives,
So deep and lasting are the impressions
of childhood that as I tramped around
the southern reach of st. Ives bay from
the pretty hamlet of st. Earth, I found
myself unconsciously scanning the high,
way far ahead for this same wicked old
fellow who had puzzled the heads of mil
lions of little folk. But he was not to be
seen any more than the exits, cats, sacks
and wives' are TO be taken into account in
the olden riddle.
In truth, no man, woman or child was
visible upon tine white and circling high
way. st. Earth nestled there silent and
apparently deserted against the copse and
the hillside. The tide was out in the bay.
A few sfshermens' boats rocked idly beside
mossy old piers Long reaches of sand
showed here and there shining and brown,
like the backs of huge marine monsters.
Gulls wheeled lazily above. Land and sea
fowl chartered in the circling marsh edges,
or dug in the sand and ooze. Only to the
north, through the rift between the head
lands, was there single sign of life. On
the sapphire blue of the Irish sea there
were two far, white sails.
But knew the ancient city lay behind
the huge headland, and quickening my
pace soon stood at its sea-fsce and it's
highest acclivity. Here the highway tum-
bles into one of the oldest old towns in
all Europe. No wonder that Londoners
are coming this, to them, tremendous
journey of two hundred and eighty miles
for summer lettering, and the grand prom
ontories behind the town are filling up
with brilliant terraces; or that artists
SWAN to the remote place for its bits of
antique in architecture, its quaint group
ings of fisher folk, and its outreachings of
wild and glorious Cornish coast.
There are pictures aud pictures of the
Bay of Naples. But were 1 an artist, 1
would stake my hope of renown on the
picture saw as stood above the bay and
ancient town of st. Ives. The bay itself
faces the north. At your feet are purple
heather and waving ferns parted from the
ofo1i hu o1iafaninu aan6a To
the right and east the green hillocks of the
eastern shore. Then the broad yellow
beach of Porth-cocking, or the Foresand.
Dominating this is the great headland of
Pednolvs. Beyond, cleaning like field
of gold, are the magnificent sands of Porth-
minister; and further still the hesdlsnd
and rocky islet of Godrevy, while the lat
ter's white lighthouse setting cameo-like
between the purple of the sea-walls and
the tremulous hlue of the ocean.
Before you, the silent shimmering bay,
with few white-winged craft scarcely
moving, it seems, the distance is SO great
from the height where you stand; the
ocean beyond, shining and blue and still;
rythmic reaches of incoming tide waves,
miles in length, advancing and retreating
and breaking softly upon the shelving
sands in tiny ridges of sparkling spume;
and here, to the west, a great mass of
jumbled gray-old st. Ives crouching in
a little pocket of the rocks, like a mass of
messy stone in some shadowy glen, sleep
ing 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 it at leap, and
is broken by the fall into the oldest closes
and wynds of any coastwise nook in Eng
land. One could almost hurl a stone
across its crowded tiled roofs; and yet it
houses fully nine thousand people. The
streets are 80 narrow, the pavements so
meagre, such queer turns are made, such
shadowy arcades are penetrated, that the
surest-footed stranger pedestrian will meet
many bump and bang in most careful
descent.
Then when you have reached something
like level you have simply increased your
difficulties. All the lower thoroughfares
are scarcely more than shsdowy foot paths
leading bewilderingly from somewhere to
nowhere. This one, opening promisingly.
brings you squarely against solid wall of
rock That one in half a dozen PAGES
lands you upon a fiat roof. fl om which
you may easily step into the hsrbor an
hundred feet beneath. Another winds
about a single structure windowless as a
tenth century fortress. Descending snoth-
er, you find a nest of homes whose roofs
are the pssssgeway of a street above.
Dozens lead squarely into open doors of
| fishermens' homes. Many are like CALLER
les before others. Some wind through
houses where living rooms of the same
house will be found at either side of q
public passage.
And then in what odd hooks the little
shops will be found. There is not a sin.
! gle street one hundred yards in length
| where a half dozen shops are continuous.
| ly located. Even in these you must need:
| 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 mus
repeatedly come with guide or find re
| discovery hopeless. Here will be on,
| perched in a half-timbered Elizsbsthar
| projection, away up there three or foui
| stories from the street, and you canno
find an entrance. And there one will b,
seen as many stories beneath q tiny espla
naded way, but apparently you canno
reach 1t without rope and tackle. Other
are where kitchens should be. And still
others unexpectedly confront you fIon
dormer windows. Everything of thi
sort seems bewilderingly reversed from ii
proper order. But nothing ever seems Il
be bought or sold In old st. Ives; the ar
lists gloat over the curious tumble; and /
is all most winsome and charming to tn
stranger.
II you come at last through this lsby
rinth to the waterside you will gaze bacl
along the dormers, penthouscs and roof
of the strange cid city, and up and on T.
It's terraced heights with increased enthu
slasm for It's rare qusintness and ouriou
aspects. Tiny towers show here and ther
as II outjutting from natural rock. Bit
Of luxuriant foliage and masses of vine
seem to spring from the roofs like ric
clumps of emerald moss. Spires and won
drously high peaked roofs stand ou
against the gray and green backgroun
| al. .naarhaala ~ nnnntfahaI ataal