I woke up this morning, completely convinced that I had been in Cornwall all night. Reading 'Jamaica Inn' before you go to sleep is perhaps not a good idea. Mary our heroine in this book had just been for a long tramp over the moors following her uncle, lost herself as dusk gathered and was then taken to the home of our arch villian, the albino vicar (think he is a vicar). Du Maurier book is reviewed in this article by Julie Myerson, and the first part will be shown tonight on the TV.
I first went to Cornwall as a child, we stayed in Polruan, with Fowey over on the other side of the harbour, my recollections were fishing in a small boat for mackerel which was then cooked that night, rowing over in this small boat (against tides if I remember rightly) to shop at Fowey. In the evenings we went off in a somewhat larger boat with a fisherman up the tidal creek to stop at a pub and it was all very beautiful and very green, my first introduction to the beauty of nature. Childish memory is that of the car stuck on the steeply sloping bank waiting to be taken over on the car ferry, scared stiff that the brakes of the car would not hold and we would roll into the water. The other memory is of coming over Dartmoor in that misty cold weather Du Maurier has set her novels in, and seeing the great terrible greyness of the prison at Princetown. It probably gave me nightmares as I imagined the terrible creatures that lived there.....Looking at a picture now I see that I probably exaggerated my fears somewhat!
I have just published a record of the Gumb marriages in the previous post, basically for research, as I delve deeper into the history, no record of Daniel's father at Linkinhorne, but Daniel's wife, Thomazin Roberts, who he married in 1935, must have died a few years into the marriage, (maybe from childbirth) because he later marries Florence Brockinshear in 1743. But the date of 1735 is the one carved on his cave house at the Cheesewring, perhaps the poor woman just could not stand the cold on the moor. Note her name, Thomazin, a very Cornish name just like Demelza of the 'Poldark' series......
I have just published a record of the Gumb marriages in the previous post, basically for research, as I delve deeper into the history, no record of Daniel's father at Linkinhorne, but Daniel's wife, Thomazin Roberts, who he married in 1935, must have died a few years into the marriage, (maybe from childbirth) because he later marries Florence Brockinshear in 1743. But the date of 1735 is the one carved on his cave house at the Cheesewring, perhaps the poor woman just could not stand the cold on the moor. Note her name, Thomazin, a very Cornish name just like Demelza of the 'Poldark' series......
Cornwall is such a mysterious county - maybe something to do with the way it sticks out into the sea and has sea on three sides. I love it and am so looking forward to Jamaica In tonight.
ReplyDeleteWe found Jamaica Inn a bit of a disappointment, not a tor in sight, and not much mist either - perhaps they should have filmed in Cornwall. Du Maurier does the tale better in her writing.
DeleteYou drew me in--half an hour later I've followed all the links and wondered afresh at the strange and surely unsavory lives of the Du Maurier family. I wonder if I would enjoy the new filming of Jamaica Inn--too often a book which has been vivid seems 'dumbed-down' when turned into a film.
ReplyDeleteThanks for an interesting start to my day.
Hi MM, picking up on the word 'unsavory' perhaps that is what gives the 'edge' to Du Maurier's writing. I have never read anything about her and I must say Myerson has piqued my interest, one forgets that writers put their own experiences into their work.
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