Penzance

Went to Penzance yesterday. My usual book and charity shop hop.

Not that much on offer, a slightly battered copy of Gutenberg Galaxy by Marshal McLuhan was all I found.

As it was Thursday had a curry in the Tremenheere.

Someone has a sense of humour though.

Old Photos

I've got a box of old family photos and found these images in them. I don't know who they are, I don't recognise any of them as being in my family. Must be some friends of my parents in there somewhere.

The London Lunatics tag comes from the writing on the box beside the kneeling man.

What I do know is that they were taken in Penzance in the late '50s or early '60s. More than a little Goon show influence there I think!






I presume the London Lunatics were so named because they frequented the London Inn at the bottom of Causewayhead in Penzance (it explains a lot!)

I think the photos were taken outside there. The pub is still open.

Mazey Day again

It's 8am and it's cold and raining. Time to revisit Mazey Day.

Shots of the flags on the promenade from various years.

Mazey Day

My favourite day of the year is Mazey Day. This is one of the last events of the Golowan Festival which takes place in Penzance in the last week of June.

There is so much to see and I have taken so many photographs over the last five years that it is too much to put into one post. So this post is about the fantastic creations that are paraded through the streets.

These are from various years from 2006 to 2010.











Golowan Festival Website

Photos on Flickr

Penzance Ash Wednesday Storm 1962

Looking at Penzance-related items on the net turned up this from The Acorn Archive.

Pictures of Penzance seafront after the Ash Wednesday Storm 1962.

I lived there then and remember seeing all that devastation.

And for no other reason than I love it. The Egyptian House.

Penzance 16th August 2010

Dinner in Wetherspoons, Lasagne, always good.

Then a trawl of the charity shops and S/H bookshops.

The Oxfam shop had a rather nice tassel for 99p. I use these on the keys of my bookcases, bureau etc. as a detail and they are practical too.



There it is on the key to my Cabinet of Curiosities. More on that later.

The S/H bookshop had this rather good Hogarth print, not the actual original, but a later version dated 1809. It is The Times Plate 2.



This was originally published on one sheet with The Times Plate 1.

Plate 1 combines a pictorial defence of the then prime minister, the Earl of Bute, with a sustained attack on his predecessor William Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Whereas Pitt was associated with an aggressive stance towards Britain’s French and Spanish opponents in the Seven Years’ War, Bute came to power determined to end this victorious but expensive conflict...

Plate 2 ostensibly offers a contrasting vision of the war’s peaceful aftermath, dominated by a statue of the King and by the details of replenishment. At the same time, the print also seems to call into question George III’s dependence on a coterie of Scottish courtiers and ministers. For, under the elevated but passive eye of his royal master, Bute is shown operating a pump that supplies water to a series of potted-plants inscribed with the names of fictional Scottish placemen.

From Tate Britain

Also bought a book on Bruce Chatwin. With Chatwin Portrait of a Writer by Susan Clapp. I read The Songlines a while ago, then went on to read a number of his travel books.