3-074-485 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sketches in the Scilly Isles, 1883. 'Tresco Abbey; Abbey Gardens; Mill, High [sic] Town; Peninis [sic] Head, St. Marys; Pulpit Rock; Old Church, St. Marys; Tusk Rock; Peninis Rocks...[Views of] Tresco Abbey,...the mansion which takes this name from the ruins of an old monastic building...the luxuriant exotic vegetation in the gardens, where aloes and yuccas...prove the genial influence of the local climate, cherished...by the warm air that accompanies the Gulf Stream...Besides Hughtown...this island [ie St. Mary's] has an ancient capital, which is called Old Town. The old church here is now used for the cemetery chapel...On the windy hill of [Hugh] Town is the conspicuous windmill, another object delineated by [our] Artist. But his attention has been more fully directed to the picturesque rocks of Scilly; those most especially of Pen-Innis (in pure Celtic, the Head of the Island), which have been chopped and hewn by a thousand storms, by the giant forces of wave and weather, into such fantastic shapes as we see. Granite arches, towers, and spires, or the mimic presentments of grim primeval monsters...piles of enormous boulders, poised in seemingly untenable positions, threaten to fall into the sea'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.