[?]illy Isles Have Romantic History

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 535, 19 May 1933, Page 17

[?]illy Isles Have Romantic History

Lree>s of tons of i flowers are . now sen.t I t 0 england every year

lishris of flower, cultivated U Lrtet (distinct from the fVfl 'a which is ono of their Bffl A fh^ Scilly Isles, wlnch l ^81 f t]ie Piince of Wales's |Pf rornwall, have known only Pf,ms of growers. |«atr' it iS little more than 50 P • the fii'st consignment of ■ sinCe cniilv "ffhite narcissus, fe grew wild in the hedge1 V pntin a bandbox to Covent » htan enterprising smallholder, W- "I the flower exports of B®1*? '/in a ffood season amount rSv i°»snf tiieir ocean climate, fcf w iourney to England m liese islands for a space iiS ovei'soa to the Coii!I and thus the Scillomans l°Se sent the first floral mesl!; riug to the mainland.towns B& But there is no doubt that Knowimposed on early hor1 nroducts from abroad have Ee industry, opening up an op- ■; of increased prospenty, of B isfelt, full advantage should

Eosperity of Scilly lies very Eheart of the Pnnce, who has Rsiderable interest in the pos B(0f the expansion of the plea■Lupation of flower-growing as ■Jin the development of the K archipelago as a holiday reB, Romantic History. BL back into the social history Ble peaceful, industrious, and deK jsiand folk is to encounter a B of ships lured to the rocks, Bering and smuggling. The old Bsians loved adventure and cared Bfor the law. But now the coves Mm the smugglers rowed all

night from France in open boats, with theif contrahand concealed under buoys, are fringed with daffodils in ordered ranks. Garden-like slopes and small patches of the undercliff carry spring flowers almost to the spray of the breaking waves. Of the early history of the islands, Scillonian tradition is not built on a sequence of airy myths. The Scillies may have been the Gassiterides — the tin islands — mentioned 6y Steabo. They boast circles of immense rocks that may have been druidical, and a number of tombs that may have contained Celts. By a charter of Henry I Scilly was granted to the Abbey at Tavistock, with the righf over all wreckage save whales and whole ships. The first liint of alliance with the- Estate of Cqrnwall is given in the confirmation of Henry I's grant to liis natural son, Richard Earl of Cornwall. In 1306 Edward granted the islands to Randolph de Blanchminster, on condition that lie find 12 armed men to assist him in keeping tlie peace and paid a rent of 300 nufiins. or six shil-

lings and eightpence, a year. During the uninterrupted signeury of Tavistock Abbey there were many secular landlords who governed, like the monks whom they detested, with degrees of violence and extortion. Tliirty years after the Dissolution, Queen Elizabeth granted the islands to the Goclolphin family-, whose head is .the Duke of Leeds, with supreme jurisdiction over all matters save those cpncerning the Admiralty, heresies, treasons, and the taking away of life. •No Duke of Leeds ever visited the islands, thougli this one family retained supremacy for more than 250

years, with a brief dispossession dur> ing the Interregnum. . At , the latter ' time, their duke having departed, the islanders were compensated by an even more august . association, for Prince Charles, fleeing from the Roundheads, took ship from England and .sheltered for six weeks in Star Castle, which the Godolphins had built mostly from the stones of a ruined castle belonging to the Earls of Cornwall. With the Restoration the Godolpiiins had their lease renewed, and held it until the reign of William IV. Prom that time until the present the history of the islands is marked by only a few fitful and baffled attempts to increase their old associations with celebrity. Their ramparts were strengthened iii the Spanish War of 1740 to no purpose, and were di.smantled in 1863; and it is accounted f ortunate that they were never used, since the guns came from a salvaged wreck of 1777 anr" had lain 54 years in the ocean. Island Dignity. In 1905 a last effort was made t;-. dignify Scilly, when some hundreds of th'ousands were spent in an attempl to make it a naval base, an idea tha; was atrophied by the diseovery tha' a few discharges of cannon were cer tain to hring down all the houses. Though no visible written charter exists including Scilly in the Duchy of Cornwall, it was understood.- to be a member in 1308. There have been various grants. during a Duke of Cornwall's lifetime to other persons, and in the seventh year of James I's reign the islands were granted "out of the hand of the Duke of Cornwall," They are now an inseparable -member of the Prince of Wales's Duchy. And islands so small and isolated should be content with their romantic past and full of hope for the ■ prosperous future that seems in store. The islanders have the privilege of paying their rents to the eldest son of the Monarch, and they know from >experience and the evidence of their prosperity that they could desire no better landlord.