Further afield
Trip Start
Dec 31, 2010
1
20
24
Trip End
Jan 31, 2011
Where I stayed
Bar Lodge, Penrose Estate
Helston, England, United Kingdom
Monday, January 24, 2011
Shaking off the cobwebs, I pad downstairs into the chilly kitchen and make a cup of coffee and take it into the dining room and sip it at the table in the bay window looking out at the moonlight on the water and the morning star off toward the east. And I sit there as the eastern horizon begins to glow from deep purple to peach listening to the cry of the gulls.
In the early afternoon I take a walk in the opposite direction as yesterday, following the road I came in on, following it further into the estate, along the shore of Loe Pool, through woodlands, past green fields fenced with hedgerows. It's warm in the sun and I unbutton my coat and tuck my scarf onto a pocket.
At the end of Loe Pool, a wide lawn stretches up a gentle slope to the great sandstone Penrose House. The fortunes of the Rogers family declined in the 20th century and the upkeep of the mansion eventually became a burden. In 1974, Lt. Commander John Peverell Rogers, R.N., donated the remaining 1500 acres of the estate, Loe Pool, and four miles of waterfront to the National Trust, although the house remains the Commander's private home and isn't open to the public. His agreement with the Trust also stipulated that he Pool remain off limits to swimming, fishing and boating and left as a natural refuge for quiet walks and contemplation, and earnestly hoping, no doubt, that it might preserve his home from the worst excesses of the hoi polloi.
I take the fork toward Helston and continue through a wooded bog thick with tangled, moss-covered trees and around the shoulder of a hill to a park at the outskirts of town. I can see Helton's church and high street on the hill above, but have no reason to visit and I turn back and follow the path back. It's about a six mile walk roundtrip.
Back at the Lodge, I achieve pyrotechnic victory over the Ecologs, make a pot of tea and tuck into Wilkie Collins' "The Woman in White."
