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WHAT better venue could there be for a talk
entitled If Only Books Could Talk than the historic Morrab Library in
Penzance? writes Frank Ruhrmund.
Given by
Newlyn-based author and historian Margaret Perry, she presented a
convincing plea for the pleasure to be found in old books rather than
new.
She referred to some of the old books about Cornwall from her own collection, Warner's Tour through Cornwall, published in 1809, and A Guide to Mount's Bay and Land's End, published in 1816, which once belonged to Henry Boase, mayor of Penzance in the early 19th century.
But her talk was centred around one book – Memories of the West by W H Hamilton Rogers, published in 1888.
It was what the book, with its many notes and insertions – including a letter to The Cornishman in 1928 – had to say about its previous owner, William Coulson Tregarthen, which she said held the key to its beauty.
Naturalist
Born in Penzance in 1856, one of
his brothers was John Coulson Tregarthen, who was to gain fame as a
naturalist and writer of such books as Wild Life at the Land's End and The Life Story of the Otter (Hare, Badger, Fox etc) plus the novel John Penrose: a Romance of the Land's End.
William
was a talented musician. When only 11, he was playing the organ at
church services, and a few years later, aged 16, he became the articled
pupil of the organist of Bristol Cathedral and the Colston Hall. He
also became a pupil at Gloucester Cathedral of Dr Samuel Sebastian
Wesley, a great-nephew of John Wesley and one of the most distinguished
musicians of his day.
As well as playing the music
of others, William also composed his own hymn tunes, and had several
published. In 1878 when still only 22, poised on the brink of a
promising career, he left this country for South Africa where he became
organist at the collegiate Church of St Mary's, Port Elizabeth, in the
Cape Colony. What prompted him to make such a move is anybody's guess.
Although he never came back, either to this country or county, he
maintained close links with Penzance and had The Cornishman
sent to him each week, presumably by the town's celebrated Bridger's
Bookshop, which was such a feature of Penzance for so many years.
Good humour
Her copy of Memorials of the West carries a Bridger's label.
With good humour, Margaret Perry allowed the book to speak for itself.
Fascinating for many reasons, but principally for its extras, among them, the Cornishman
letter. Such was the power of the press and the strength of his appeal,
not to mention his generosity, he gave 100 guineas to the Tregarthen
bell cause. The bell still carries the inscription: "Peace and Good
Neighbourhood – William Coulson, Tregarthen".
Although
he was made a Bard of the Cornish Gorsedd in 1935, his brother had been
made one at the first Bardic ceremony at Boscawen Un in 1928. William,
who died in 1942 at the age of 87, remains one of Cornwall's unsung
heroes. The book which talks about him found its way from South Africa
to Australia and, a century after its publication, to Penzance, and
then to Newlyn, to the safe keeping and tender care of Margaret Perry.
It
just so happens that St Mary's Church is currently trying to raise
funds for the recasting of the frames that hold its superb bells.
article copyright THE CORNISHMAN
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