WEST BRITON AND CORNWALL ADVERTISER - transcribed by J. Mosman 28 January 1859 CORNUBIANA - THE WESTERN PENINSULA There are three parishes in the "Western Peninsula," remarkable for their fertility in the production of fruit and vegetables - Gulval, Madron, and Paul, each bordering on the sea; in fact, there is but one parish to the West of Hayle that has no sea coast, viz., Sancreed. A considerable part of Gulval, (the next westward parish to Ludgvan), has a fine southern aspect sloping down to the sea, terminating in a beautiful sandy beach, which extends to the town of Marazion. The beach is so hard and firm after the tide has left it, that horse races took place there in 1855 and 1856, but a majority of the respectable  inhabitants of the neighbourhood were not inclined to permit an annual exhibition of such cruelties, nor the diffusion of those immoral and vicious practices connected with them; so it is not likely that there will be another horse-racing for some time to come on the sandy shores of Mount's Bay. >From the Penzance Pier head, some of the evergreen fields of Gulval can be seen, but in order to discover all the beauties of this delightful parish, it must be rambled over, its valleys explored, and the foot bridges over its tiny trout-streams must be crossed. There are numerous pathways, several of them actually through those field-gardens in which are grown some of the finest vegetables and fruits in England; the fences, generally, are so low as not to prevent them from being seen by every passer by, and, strange as it may appear to the inhabitants of some other districts, very  little is plundered. There are few, if any, walled gardens except on gentlemen's places. The utility of walls for some kinds of fruit trees cannot be questioned, but there is more solid real beauty in one of the hedges in Gulval, than in all the stone walls of Europe. In passing through the cultivated parts of this parish one is struck with the richness of its soil and the vast quantities of its! vegetable productions. The gardeners seem to be well acquainted with the best modes of cropping, for it is not unusual to see three different kinds growing at the same time, in the same spot of ground. A field, for instance, in which gooseberry trees have been growing for some years, is laid out in what are called "beds" with the trees in the middle; in February or March these beds are sown to onions, and in June, the paths are planted with brocoli, so that in July the beds are covered with onions, a fine crop of gooseberries above the soil, and the pathways occupied by brocoli. Apparently these plants do not interfere with each other, as in favourable seasons the crops are generally good. Recently some of the gardeners in the neighbourhood have contrived to sow wheat in their fields of brocoli about Christmas; in cutting the vegetables in March and April, the wheat is well trodden, which answers the purpose of rolling; the yield in several instances of the kind has been an average one. The greater number of gardeners measure their land well; vast quantities of woollen rags have been used of late years; women are hired to chop them up small before they are put in the ground for a crop. Gardening requires a great deal of labour – a square shovel with a very long handle Is used to turn over the soil. At one of the Horticultural meetings, held in Penzance a few years since, one of the speakers recommended the use of the spade, stating that he thought it preferable to the implement generally used; no change, however, has taken place. The objection to the spade is, the constant stooping position required, in order to use it. In the gardening district many labourers! are employed; it is not uncommon to see twenty persons in a field in the spring of the year, weeding the crops, and thirty or forty in the fruit season, gathering for the markets. A single gardener has been known to send off from sixteen hundred to two thousand gallons of gooseberries in one week in July; the same number of hampers of brocoli of the finest quality have been sent from the neighbourhood in one day. It is supposed that three or four hundred acres of this vegetable are grown in the district in a year. The vendors of our Cornish productions in London, have been known to recommend them to their customers as foreign productions, thinking perhaps by such recommendations to further the sale, some people being foolishly fond of any article that is brought from abroad; or they might have really thought that Cornwall is an outlandish place, and that these vegetables are indigenous like the bread fruits tree or the cocoa nut. The walks in this parish, and, in fact, all around the Penzance, the capital of the "Western Peninsula," are numerous and very beautiful. The entrances to the greater part of them are by stiles - a few large stones nearly level with the road, so that they are very easy of access to ladies and children; and then many of them are through the lawns and near the most respectable residences and family seats. Gulval Church Town, about half a mile from the eastern green, is one of the most rustic in the whole Peninsula. The pathway leading to it from Ponsandean Bridge is through some of the garden grounds. Arriving within a few yards of the Church one is forcibly struck with the antique appearance of the whole village. Near the flight of steps leading to the church-yard, there is one of those low cottages, with the scarlet geranium growing close up under the thatch, and a tall myrtle by its side. The winter is seldom severe enough to injure either. Many kinds of plants grown out of! doors in this district which in many other parts of England are the admired tenants of the green-house. So little has vegetation been checked during the present season, that on the 29th of December, primroses were gathered by the way side, and seeral other kinds of wild flowers adorned the hedges; the scarlet geranium was in full bloom against the cottage wall, and in several places the cutting of brocoli had commenced for the distant markets. Dr. FORBES, in his observations on the climate of this neighbourhood, says "One of the most remarkable instances of the mildness of your climate is the unusually early appearance of frog's spawn; this I observed at Gulval on the 8th of January. According to White's Naturalist's Calendar, which was made from observations taken in Hampshire, a warm and early county, the earliest and latest appearance there specified are February 28th and March 22nd. Taking therefore, the second week in March as the average for its appearance, you should seem in this instance to be full two months earlier than Hampshire." >From Gulval Church Town there are some delightful walks across the fields, leading to Rosemorran, Trevaylor, and Kenegie, and from which there are very interesting views of the Mount's Bay. Rosemorran is on a hill, and the cottage is completely hidden by trees.  _____"Whose lofty elms  Invite the rook, who high amid the boughs,  In early spring, his airy city builds,  And ceaseless caws amusive." An avenue of these trees, of which the rooks seem to be so very fond, etends from the high road to the "babbling brook,” that rises in the Zender hills, and glides musically along a beautiful valley known in the neighbourhood as "Trevaylor Bottoms," where the botanist may find perfect specimens of the shining feather moss (Hookeria lucens), and the Lateral Neckera (Neckera heteromalia), and other interesting plants. In one of the path-way fields leading to the parish church there is one of those large wide-spreading ash trees, which in the summer months affords a cooling shade to the "lazy kine." It is the last large ash tree in England, and ere we can find another of equal dimensions, in a westerly direction, we must cross the broad Atlantic, and visit America. About a half a mile below Trevaylor, at a place called Blenbridge, may be seen one of those inscribed stones in which antiquaries take so much interest; it was formerly used as a foot-bridge, but now stands in an upr! ight position close by the stream. Kenegie, formerly the seat of the Harrises, has been lately purchased by W. COULSON, Esq., M.D., who is making great alterations and improvements on the estate. Between this ancient seat and Rosemorran there is another of those crystal streams, for which the locality is so justly celebrated, and on its banks may be gathered the Green Hellebore, the Finge Moss, Common Bladderwort, &c. Pendrea, another delightful spot, is at present the residence of R. BOLITHO, Esq., who is building a large mansion facing the Bay, and near Chyandour, where a very extensive trade is carried on in smelting, tanning, &c, &c. Although the southern part of Gulval is so highly productive and the soil so exceedingly fertile, yet the northern part is very bleak and unproductive. There is a scarcity of trees in this and many other parts of the "Western Peninsula," in many places they would grow if planted, yield shelter for cattle,and eventually improve the soil. Many of the gardeners by putting in cuttings of the poplar, soon obtain a defence against some of the most blasting winds, that might seriously injure the crops if their violence were not checked. There are a few persons to be met with who have a decided objection to trees, believing that the roots drain the land and exhaust the soil; many hundreds of thousands of trees might however be planted on what are called "wastrels," which would in no way injure any of the cultivated enclosures, but would, while they afforded shelter, also ornament and beautify the country. The planting of potatoes, for the principal early crop, is generally during the present month. The rocks have been mowed once more, and their produce sold for about three shillings per cart load. The quickness with which the potato shoots appear above the ground is very remarkable. [This is the end of the images I have of this article - but it goes on to discuss potatoes, and the art of growing them correctly.] Julia M.   West Briton Transcriptions, 1836-1856 at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~wbritonad St. Austell Area History and Genealogy at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~staustell