Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Signed by author. Pages in excellent condition. No notes or highlighting. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> There is something of an elusive quality about rocky sea girt isles especially these islands of Scilly. They are strategically placed in the approaches to the English Channel and in certain lights they float like mirages on a silver lake. It is this hint of mystery this elusiveness that arouses such desires to be sought out. The islands can be found some 27 miles west south west of Land’s End and can be reached by ferry or helicopter services from Penzance. This book seeks to introduce the lover of nature to Scilly through the year by illustrating each month the changes of colour and the differing moods of the Islands. The Islands have been populated since approximately 2000B.C. The first inhabitants were ‘People who burned their dead on hilltops’. These people probably came to Scilly from Brittany after working their way up the Iberian peninsula from the Mediterranean. Through the centuries the inhabitants have had changing fortunes but mostly have had a very hard time to exist on these bare islets and it was not until Augustus Smith arrived in 1834 and took over the lease of the Islands from the Crown that any regularity came into peoples’ lives. Before his arrival kelping the burning of seaweed into a liquid mass which when cooled was sent off to the manufacturers of soap and glass was a summer occupation. Piloting of ships a dangerous and difficult occupation gave work to hardy seamen. Shipbuilding on St. Mary’s in the 19th century had created wealth and better times for some but the inhabitants of the off islands did not share in this industry live off often forced to and they were limpets from the shore. Augustus Smith’s first acts were to establish a sound education system and to direct the population into more specialised activities and also to give tenants more security on their holdings. (LL)