Drive to Marazionand visit of the castle to St. Michael's Mount.

St. Michaels Mount belongs the castle to the National Trust. ( £ 6,60 per Person)
For the National Trust i purchased an annual membership all facilities with this one be able to National Trust be inspected free of charge.
Sigrid were free by Cliv'e's life membership.



The Mount in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I

After the Reformation and the dissolution of Syon Abbey, the Mount was subsequently held on leave from the Crown by various West Country gentlemen who were known as "Captains" or "Governors" of the Mount. They were required to maintain a garrison of five soldiers to defend the Mount and a priest. The strength of the fortress of the Mount was very necessary for the protection of the surrounding coast.Richard Carew(1602) tells us that at the beginning of King Henry VIII's reign Marazion "felt the Frenchmen's fiery indignation who landed there with thirty sail. But the smoke of those poor houses calling in the country to the rescue, made the place over hot for the enemy's any longer abode."
In the early years of Queen Elizabeth, the main danger was from France, but before twelve years had elapsed, the conflict with France had given way to the great struggle between England and King Philip of Spain. The Catholic King of Spain refused to accept the Protestant religious settlement in England. By 1585 war the Spain had become inevirable and orders were sent to Cornwallthat liekly landing places were to be covered with stakes and trained bands were to be mustered.
In 1587 the beacon on top of the church tower of St. Michael's Mount signalled the approach of the Spanish Armadaof 130 ships sailing up the Channel for the invasion of England. This inspired Macaulay to write:

For swift to east ans swift to west the ghastly
war-flame spread.
High on St. Michael's Mount it shone. It
shone on Beachy Head.

The destruction of the Spanish Armada did not remove the danger of Spanish landings in Cornwall. In 1595 four Spanish galleons appeared out of the mist off Moushole and landed two hundred men. After burning Moushole and the church tower of Paul, they suddenly re-embarked in their galleons and then landed their whole force at Newlyn. Newlynand Penzancewere set on fire by the enemy before Sir Francis Godolphinwas able to mustert sifficient bands of militiamen to force the Spaniards to return to their ships.
Towards the end of the reign Queen Elizabeth was hard pressed for money because of the expense of the Spanish wars and sold off some of what had previously been the property of the monasteries before this wealth had been confiscated by the Crown in the reign of King Henry VIII. The Mount and two manors was sold to Sir Robert Cecil, later the Earl of Salisbury of State.There is no record that even visited the Mount. He maintained a military garrison on the castle for the defence of surrounding countryside. A lease of the castle had been granted in 1596 to Sir Arthur Harris who remained in his post as Captain and Governor until he died in 1628. He proved to be the most zealous officer and frequently made petitions to the Privy Council to be supplied with more guns and ammunition for the defence of the Mount. When he died he left behind him the memory of a loyal and faithful servant.
A report and inquiery made at a later date records that in the reign of King James Iguns and ammunition were supplied to the Mount from the Tower of London. A flag was sent down to be flown in the King's name so that the Union Jackstill flies from the church tower by royal command. All ships were required to strike their topsails in acknowledgement that they were subject to the Commander-in-chief of the castle.


Mount held by the Royalists 1642 - 1646

In 1640 the Earl of Salisbury sold the Mount to Sir Francis Bassetwho was only able to enjoy the procession of it for two years before civil war broke out between the Royalists and the Roundheads. In Cornwall the majority remained loyal to the King and Sir Francis Basset was a leading Royalist military commander. He immediately took steps to strenghten and improve the fortifications of the Mount at his own expense. Out of his own money he paid for twelve men and a gunner until 1644 when, by command of the King, the garrison was increassed to fifty soldiers.

In 1643 Francis Basset was appointed High Sheriff of Cornwall. The warrant from King Charles Iwas addressed "To our Trusty and Well-beloved Francis Basset Esq.". The Royalist cause was at first successful in Cornwall and he took a leading part in the fighting leaving his wife Anne Basset in charge of the Mount. in letter written to her at the Mount after a great Royalist victory he thus expressed his joy:

"Dearest Soule,
oh dearest Soule, prayse God everlastingly. Read ye enclosed. Ring out your bells. Rayse bonfyres, publish these joyfull tydings. Believe these truths, excuse my writing larger, I have no tyme; wee march on to meete of victorious friends, and to seaze all the rebells left if wee can find such living. Your dutyous prayers God has heard. Bless us accordingly, pray everlastingly, and Jane and Bettyand all you owne. Thy owne, Fras. Basset. Pray let my cousin Harry know these joyfull blessings. Send word to the ports south and north, to searche narrowly for all strangers travelling for passage and cause the keepinge them close and safe.
To my dearest dearest friend Mrs. Basset at the Mount.Speed this, haste, haste".

However, life must have been very hard for Mrs. Basset at the Mount while her husband was away fighting with the royalist army and she was certainly left in a position of great responsibility. The Mount harbour was invaluable to the Royalists as ammunition could be imported there from France and was paid for by the sale of tin from the tin mines. Ships bound for the Mount had to run through a naval blockade as the navy was on the side of Parliament.
In 1644 the King bestowed a Knighthood on Sir Francis Basset. He died in 1645 and was succeded as commander of the Mount by his brother Sir Arthur Basset. The following year was one of disaster and defeat for the Royalist cause. The Prince of Wales (later King Charles II) was lodged at the Mount on his way to the Scilly Isles where he was being sent for greater safety. The little room adjoining the Chevy Chase Room where he stayed has since been known as "King Charles Room".
On the north-western side of the island there is a gap between the cliffs known as "Cromwell's passage" where the Parliamentary troops landed from the sea and were repulsed by the Royalist defenders of the castle. Some Cromwellian armour was dug up in the last century near the main door and is now displayed in the Chevy Chase Room.
On 23rd April 1646 Sir Arthur Basset surrendered St. Michael's Mount to the Parliamentary troops owing, it is said, to the advice of the Duke of Hamilton who had been sent to the Mount as a prisoner and the garrison was proving to be unreliable. Over one hundred men had recently deserted and eighty more were surprised unarmed in the streets of Marazion. Under the terms of surrender Sir Arthur Basset and his officers were allowed to proceed with their arms to the Isles of Scilly. The Parliamentary army granted easy terms as they were thankful to be spared a long siege.


Colonel St. Aubyn nominated Captain of the Mount by Parliament

In 1647 Parliament nominated John St. Aubyn, a Parliamentary leader, to be Captain of the Mount. He was the last military Governor to maintain a garrison there. In 1649 he received the thanks of Parliament for helping to put down a Royalist insurrection in Cornwall. In 1659 he purchased the Mount from the Basset familiy who, at that time, had been improverished on account of their loyality to the King.
Oliver Cromwellhad died in 1658 and after his death there was considerable confusion between different factions and tension between Parliament and the army. General Monck, one of the most successful Parliamentary Generals assumed supreme command. He supported a free Parliament and a majority of moderate Roundheads and Cavaliers were elected. Colonel St. Aubyn was elected a Member of Parliament and was appointed Vice-Admiral in 1659. In that year General Monck wrote an order for possession of the Mount to be handel over to him with all arms and munitions of war. General Monck had won complete power in England and was responsible for the restoration of King Charles II.
Colonel John St. Aubyn must have found the castle buildings in a considerable state of disrepair after the gallant defence of the Mount in the Civil War by Sir Francis Basset and his brother. He probably repaired the main castle entrance and west door, as he set up above it the Family coat of arms impaling those of his wife (Godolphin).
In 1649 John Taylor, "the water poet", tramped six hundred miles from London to St. Michael's Mount and back. The purpose of his journey was clearly started at the beginning of his book "Wandering to see the far West":

This long walk (first and last) I undertook
On purpose to get money by my book.

He left London on 21 June and by 12 July he had arrived within two miles of St. Michael's Mount. Unfortunately he was not impressed. "To speak the truth of this so much talked of, famous Mount". he wrote, "it is lofty, rocky, inaccessible, not worth the taking or keeping: it is barren stony little wen or wart".
The Mount as a Private House

No longer protected by a military garrison and exposed to gales and attacks from the sea in time of war, the Mount must have seemed to be an uncomfortable and dangerous place for a country house and family home in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It was not surprising that until the middle of the nineteenth century the St. Aubyn family preferred to live for some of the time at their old family house of Clowance at Crown near Camborne. Clowance was burnt in a fire early in the nineteenth century but fortunately many of the family portraits were saved and they are now at Pencarrow, the home of the Molesworth-St. Aubyn family, near Wadebridge.
There is a family tradition that the first St. Aubyn owner of the Mount, Colonel John St. Aubyn, was swept off the causeway and drowned while crossing the causeway on his horse from the mainland to the Mount. He died in 1684. His son, Sir John St. Aubynwas created a baronet by King Charles II and he was the first of five baronets all called "Sir John St. Aubyn" who succeded to the ownership of the Mount by inheritance. The first Baronet died in 1699, and, according to the Cornish historian Hals, the second baronet came to live at the Mount "for melancholy retirement and as an asylum from the world and its fillies." He died in 1722 and succeded by Sir John St. Aubyn, the third baronetwho achieved a considerable reputation as a statesman. He became a member of Parliament at the early age of twenty-three. He was a great reformer and a leading opponent of Sir Robert Walpole. It was an age of great political corruption and dishonesty but Sir Robert Walpole said of Sir John St. Aubyn when describing the opposition party "All theses men have their price except the little Cornish Baronet".
Sir John St. Aubyn was also a man of considerable taste and culture alternations and decorative work on the Mount. It was he who planned the conversion of the ruined Lady Chapel into the present blue drawing rooms. Also in 1723 Dr. Borlase the grave Cornish antiquarian, but for all that a gay and companionable friend, conveyed to him a requestin the name of some ladies that "the floor of the hall of the Mount should be planched for dancing." The request was no doubt granted as the present Gothic doors of the Chevy Chase Room date from this period.
The third baronet died in 1744. The fourth baronet was also a member of Parliament and there are portraits of him in the blue drawing rooms but he died in 1772 at the relativly early age of forty-six. He was succeded by his rather remarkable son, Sir John St. Aubyn the fifth and last baronet. He also became a member of Parliament but does not seem to have taken a prominent part in political life. He was a friend and patron of the artist John Opie and a great collector and connoisseur of works of art. He was also interested in science and was a leading mineralogist of his time. He was something of a dilletante and was noted for his distinguished and courteous manners and the portraits of him at the Mount indicate that he must have possessed great personal charm.

Unfortunately the fith baronet was very extravagent and most of his large collection of etchings and engravings had to be sold to pay his debts when he died. Diana Hartley in her book "The St. Aubyns of Cornwall 1200 - 1977" tells an amusing family anecdote that when, in his youth, his creditors arrived to demand payment of money owed to them, he did in the big open chimney but left one foot exposed. He was saved by a maid who marched up and down in front of the fireplace singing a popular song of the time"T'other leg up Sir John, Sir John" until he drew his foot up out of sight. His morals also caused some embarrasment to the family as all his fifteen children were illegitimate. He discared his first mistress after having had five children by her and eventually married his second mistress in 1822 after all their children had grown up. She was Juliana Vinicombe the daughter of a farmer or small landowner from Marazion.
However, in spite of his shortcommings Sir John was much respected in public life. When he died in 1839 he was so popular in Cornwall (particulary among the Freemasons of which body he was Provincial Grandmaster) that his remains were followed to the grave by between twenty thousands and thirty thousand people. He was succeded by his eldest illegitimate son James who died in 1862.


Description of the Chevy Chase Room

This room was originally the refectory of the monastery and the walls were prohably built by Abbot Bernard in the twelfth century. The timber roof was renewed in the fifteeth century and was restored in the nineteenth century when the wooden diagonals and bosses were added. The chairs are models of the original chairs used by the monks and were made by the estate carpenter in about 1800. One chair is of much greater age and is known as the Glastonbury chair as the words "Monachus Johanes Arthurus Glastonie" are carved on it. The beautiful oak table was made between 1615 and 1625 and was recently brought to the Mount. The fragments of painted glass in the windows are mostly Dutch and Flemish of different dates for the chapel by the fifth baronet and were later moved to the Chevy Chase Room. The room takes its name of "Chevy Chase" from the remarkable plaster frieze representing hunting scenes which runs around the whole room. The "Ballad of Chevy Chase" originates with a cavalry raid and moonlight figth between the English and the Scots at the battle of Otterburn in August 1388. The triangular chair in the corner is probably of Elizabethan date.

The royal coat of arms over the fireplace was placed there by Colonel John St. Aubyn to celebrate the restoration of King Charles II. For this reason it bears the date 1660 but no significance can be guessed for the date 1641 unless this was the date of the completion of the plaster-work of the hunting frieze. Also in 1660 Colonel John St. Aubyn set up at the other end of the room the St. Aubyn coat of arms impaled with the double-headed eagle of the Godolphin family as he had married Catherine doughter of Francis Godolphin.
The dado and doors of the room were altered in the eighteenth cenbury and are of Gotic design. Some further alterations were made at the end of the last century.
The banners were brought to the Mount by the second Lord St. Levan and were the company banners of the Grenadier Guards (which he commanded from 1904 to 1908) except for one banner with Arabic script which he brought back from the Sudan campaign as a trophy.
The portraits have been placed in this room during the last century and are not of members of the family. The portrait of George Monck, Duke of Albemarie (1608 - 1670) is by Robert Walker. A letter from Monck handing over command of the Mount to Colonel St. Aubyn still exists. On the seaward side of the room there is a portrait by Dobson of Thomas Killigrewwho came from an old Cornish family and was a playwright and wit, and a close firend of King Charles II. There is also a portrait of Lettice Knollysby Van Somer. She was born in 1540 and died in 1634 aged ninety-four. She married the Earl of Essexand after his death the Earl of Leicester . Both husbands died suddenly and she was suspected of poisoning them but it was never proved. The white or dead roses in her right hand are thought to represent her dead husbands while the roses in her left hand represent her children.

Description of the Church

The architecture of the present church is mainly fourteenth century as the original church had to be largely rebuilt after the earthquake of 1275. The windows are fifteenth century. Much of the masonry however, underlying these later buildings, is, no doubt, part of Abbot Bernard's church consecrated in 1135. The magnificent north door dates from the reign of King Richard II. The early Gothic and Romanesque traditions common in Cornwall may be seen in the cross head now placed on the balustrade outside the church door and on which is carved Christ on the cross, a King, a Bishop and the Virgin mary. The church door opens onto what was the cloister yard before the buildings under the north terrace were erected and several burials were found there. A cross and a human figure craved on a rock(which is now placed near the door of the Lady Chapel) is thought to have been from the tomb of one of the early priors.
The seats of the church are modern and much of the ornamentation is modern. But there is an old world atmosphere about this little church with its beautiful east rose window and it is still easy to imagine the monks worshipping God here in praise and prayer or mounting the stairway from the church which leads to the top of the tower during the night to light the lamp which guided home the fishing boats for which, perhaps. they had been anxiously waiting.

Nothing is known about the use of the church immediately after the Reformation. By the time of the Civil War when the Mount was held by the Royalists it was in a bad state of repair and was used as an ammunition store room. In 1645 an order was given that the church should be pulled down. Fortunately the order was never carried out. The church was restored again as a private chapel after St. Michael's Mount had become a family house in 1660. Alternations were carried out by Sir John St. Aubyn the second baronet in 1720 and Dr. Borlase writes that in 1762 the choir was divided from the nave of the church by the rood-loft carved and painted with the history of the Passion "and not inelegantly for former times". Since the time of Dr. Borlase the rood-loft has disappeared. Sir John St. Aubyn the fifth baronet was responsible for the restoration of the church in 1811, and about this time, he installed the fine gilt brass chandelier which is considered to be an original Flemish work of the late fifteenth century.
The present organ was built by John Avery of Bristol in 1786 and was originally installed in the London house of Colonel Lemon who was a member of Parliament for Truro. He enjoyed playing the organ at night and it seems that his neighbours in Bryanston Square objected to these nocturnal performances and in 1790 he sold the organ to Sir John St. Aubyn for £ 800. It was brought down to the Mount in 1791. There is a tradition that part of the pipework was by Father Smith who built an organ of similar compass in St. Paul's Cathedral. The organ was repaired in 1905 by Thomas Casson the father of Sir Lewis Casson the famous actor. The only major alteration was to divide the organ into two parts as it originally stood in front of the beautiful rose window.
There is no record of when the three alabasters behind the altar were brought to the Chapel. There is little doubt that they were made in Nottingham in the fifteenth century. The central panel showing the head of St. John the Baptist is of singular beauty and interest. The colouring has almost gone. The panel on the left portrays the mass of St. Gregory and the panel on the right shows Pilate washing his hands. The alabasters under the back windows on the left side of the Chapel are of Flemish work of the seventeenth century.
The cross was carved by the artist John Miller who worked at Sancreed. It was given by him for the Chapel in 1987 to replace a reredos and cross which had been erected in 1911. The painted wood combines two great traditions - Christ crucified and Christ in majesty.
The ring of bells had originally been cast for the church tower between 1385 and 1408. In 1906 the bells were restored in thanksgiving for the golden wedding of the then Lord and Lady St. Levan.
While building work was in progress a low doorway was discovered on the wall on the right of the altar with steps leading down to an underground chamber below. In this dungeon a skeleton of a man over seven feet tall was found. No one knows who he was nor why he was imprisoned here. The doorway is now hidden by the family pews.


Description of Blue Drawing Rooms

The ruined Lady Chapel was converted into the blue drawing rooms probably between 1740 and 1750. These rooms contain some very fine early Rococo Gothic plaster work and are furnished with elegant Chippendale chairs. Unfortunately there are no records or accounts to indicate who were the craftsmen employed to decorate these rooms.
Dr. Borlase who was a close friend of the third baronet and tutor to the fourth baronet in his youth wrote in 1762 the following description of the eighteenth century restorations:

"The whole house has lately undergone a thorough repair from the present and late worthy proprietors: the courts are enlarged and nearly laid with well squared Bristol slate: The parlours and bed-chambers are very elegantly furnished; Particulary in the niches of a handsome parlour lately erected where the ant-chapel of the nunnery formerly stood there ware two large vases of ornamental jasper with an alto-relief of stauary marble in each relating to Hymeneal happiness fit to adorn the largest and most magnificent slaoon."

There are portraits of the fourth baronet and Lady St. Aubyn by Thomas Hudsonon each side of the entrance door of the first drawingroom. There is also a portrait of them in a pleasant family group over the fireplace. It was painted by a little known artist George Roth.

On the left wall of the first drawing room there is a portrait of Sir John St. Aubyn, the fifth baronet (the boy standing and holding a book in the eastern family portrait over the fire-place). This is a copy by Opie of an original portrait painted by Sir Joshua Reynoldswhich Sir John St. Aubyn had given to his cousin Francis Basset, first Lord of Dunstanville and he, in return, gave to Sir John the portrait of himself painted by Thomas Gainsborough which hangs on the opposite wall. Lord Dunstanville was a member of Parliament, a liberal patron of the fine arts, and did much to promote mining prosperity in Cornwall and the social welfare of Cornish tin miners.
In the small drawing room there are a number of portraits by John Opie and one of the few landscapes painted by him "a view of St. Michael's Mount by Moonlight" painted in 1796. Opie was the son of a carpenter in a Cornish mining village. At the age of fifteen he was discovered by Dr. Wolcotof Truro who encouraged his talent and brought him to London. Sir Joshua Reynolds who was then president of the Royal Academydescribed him as a "wondrous Cornishman who is carrying all before him. He is Caravaggio and Velasquez in one."

After St. Michaels Mount we went to the little Harbour Moushole

The fishing village of Moushole lies in a valley twi miles south of Newlyn. Visited by Phoenician tin merchants more than 2500 years ago, the village has a long history and many quaint old cottages are crwoded into the narrow streets around the harbour. It was here that Dolly Pentreathdied in 1777, the last person known to use the Cornish language asher native tongue.

Temperature: circa 25°C - cloudy

Driven Miles: 66 = 106 km