Supposedly, the last fluent native speaker of the Cornish language was Dolly Pentreath, whose house still stands in Mousehole. Bob and I totally missed the site the one time we were in Mousehole and I was determined to find it this trip. Some accounts say Dolly was the last person who spoke only Cornish, while others say she learned English at the age of twenty. Regardless, Betsy and I found the house!
We've rented a tiny home that was formerly a fisherman's cottage. It's up a tiny lane and is the smallest cottage I've ever stayed in. Tiny kitchen, tiny garden, tiny staircase! Hard to imagine an entire family could live here. It's perfect for the two of us and has everything we could possibly need!
Today we the South West Coast Path from Newlyn through Mousehole and around to Lamorna Cove. 5 miles or so, easy walking. The bus schedule had changed and we were saved a 3-hour wait by a kind gentleman who gave us a lift to the next village, where we could walk the 2 miles back to Mousehole. By the end of the day we'd walked 10 miles and seen several villages we didn't know existed.
And here we thought Newlyn was just a pleasant little fishing village where they land literal boatloads of seafood to ship out to fine restaurants everywhere. I feel guilty for just blithely strolling through ten years ago, not really paying attention. And here it turns out there are fascinating tidbits of the history genre everywhere you turn. (At least, they're fascinating for us history nerds.) The Mayflower had just started out on their journey when they realized their drinking water was contaminated. Of course they had to make one final stop before heading for the Americas because hydration, cleanliness. According to historian Bill Best Harris, who may someday be able to whisper "I told you so" from his grave, the Mayflower decided to stop at Newlyn.
If this is true, then Newlyn was the Mayflower's final port of call before heading across the ocean. So which town gets to claim that it was the port from which the pilgrims "set sail" for America? There is a plaque about this and Betsy and I will find it. I know the plaque ends with "Let debate begin" which I think adds a nice touch. I'm sure there is debate about this going on somewhere. As an FYI to Betsy's family and friends, we will be hiking parts of the South West Coast Path on our trip. And actually, the path, (along with the food and Rattlers Cider) are the reasons for going to England in the first place! You can see more of the path here. We ride the buses in England a lot. The UK transit system is brilliant and I wish we had similar in the US. We have always been pleased. I was doing some last minute research to figure out bus schedules and came across the copy below. I kid you not. One of our goals* as we stroll around Mousehole (read about pronunciation here) is to find a sign that Bob and I missed our first time through.
Supposedly, the last fluent native speaker of the Cornish language lived in Mousehole. Some accounts say Dolly Pentreath was the last person who spoke only Cornish, while others say she learned English at the age of twenty. Whatever. It’s still cool. I wrote about Dolly ahead of our walk a few years back, explaining that according to the travel guides we would pass her house as we walked toward the harbor and that the house was marked by a plaque. I wrote that I would take a picture of said plaque and include it that day's blog post, at which time my readers (mostly my mom and sisters in those days) would say, “Oh, I remember Chris mentioning that house and that lady. Wow. She was right. There is a plaque.” But I totally forgot about the house and we walked right by it. Which just proves that you need to write stuff down so you don't miss things like the plaque that identifies the house of the last fluent native speaker of the Cornish language. Or does it identify the place where the house once stood? Some of these buildings are ancient. Some don't exist anymore. This trip we will find out. A couple Cornish words to know and love: Hello – Dydh da Goodbye – Dyw genes *We have very few. Several are food related. You can't get any further west in the UK. This is officially the back of beyond. We'll be walking through some of the most rugged, beautiful, and wild spots in Cornwall, which is one of my favorite counties in the UK. Go to this page to see the walks we'll do and the villages we'll see on this trip, which I am officially calling Betsy's Trip. I've done all these walks before (which is how I have photos, haha), and they are some of my favorite. Because Bob and I have set a goal to walk the entire 630-mile path, I don't want to do any new hikes without him because then he would have to do those hikes without me (unless I wanted to do them again which I probably wouldn't). But I'm excited to show Betsy a tiny piece of the England we love!
Woohoo! The countdown is on! 4 days until we leave and it's time to pack, although anyone who knows me well would know that I started packing a week ago because why leave things to the last minute? As always the goal is: LESS. Food & Drink: Water bottle; utensils; grocery/lunch bag; plastic bags for sandwiches (and pastries, scones, cookies, candy and so on). On the plane: we're flying standard this time so no fold-down beds sniff sniff. Neck pillow; eye mask; ear plugs; melatonin. Electronics: UK adapter; laptop; phone cords; portable charger. Outerwear: Raincoat; ear warmer Toiletries: First aid bag (lots of Advil for my knees); toothbrush bag to carry on; shampoo & hair care. (Not sure if the cottage will have shampoo.) Clothing: 2 pair hiking pants; 2 T-shirts; quarter zip pullover; 2 hiking socks; nightgown; 3 undies; bra; swimsuit; towel; hiking shoes. Everything: Backpack for carry on and hiking; need to add walking poles.
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