Cornwall–Land of Giants. Birthplace of King Arthur. Poldark. The Birds. Rebecca. tin mines. smugglers.
The novels of Daphne du Maurier and the television adaptations of Poldark draw the viewer into the landscape and mysteries of Cornwall at the far southwest corner of England as it pokes out into the Atlantic on the north of the peninsula and the English Channel on the south side of the peninsula. It is a land of steeply rolling hills, treacherous cliff faces, and multitudes of caves and bays.
Those bays and caves allowed for a booming “free market trade” from the late 18th through the mid-19th century as well as the creation of the Coastal Path. The path was created by the king’s revenue service to intercept traders who were importing salt on which an extortionate tax had been placed. As well as the salt, importers were also engaging in free trade practices with brandy and cloth from France. If they’re risking fines for salt, they might as well make it worthwhile importing the brandy and fine fabrics.
All this we learned on our (travel buddy, Susan and me) brief trek in Cornwall to walk along the Atlantic side of the Coastal Path. Our guide, Matty of Intrepid Travel, provided us with exhilarating walks and bits and pieces of history. That salt tax? George III applied it to pay for America’s War of Independence. It would destroy the fishing industry of Cornwall which used the salt imported from France in the processing of fish–essentially condemning the population to starvation. The tin mines, we learned, sometimes extended out below the sea. And the Cornish pasty has that convenient dough handle to allow the miners to safely eat while on the job without poisoning themselves.
The tin mines have long since closed with many of them sealed and some repurposed as heritage sites. A tin mine near the fictional town of St. Petroc, not far from Newquay, appears in the first of Martyn Waites’ novels featuring Tom Killgannon, a semi-ex cop in witness protection. I happened upon Waites as I was making my way through my self-imposed Iceland Noir 2022 reading and listening syllabus. The Newquay described in The Old Religion was rougher than the one Susan and I saw as tourists, but what we saw was a seaside resort that had passed its prime. Both The Old Religion and the third book in this series, The Gravediggers’ Song, play with the history as well as the mythology of Cornwall in thrilling and chilling characters and plot points. I spent over thirty hours listening to the novels, downloading the next one immediately after finishing the last. Martyn Waites is another storyteller inviting the reader/listener into a magical landscape.
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