On meeting the beast of Tregonning Hill, twice in one day...

48: October/November 2006

I once saw a one of those big cats that everyone keeps going on about.

I was up on Tregonning Hill, on the Wheal Vor side, one autumn evening, looking for the air filter box that had fallen off my scrambler motor bike the previous day.

We used to ride our bashed up, off road bikes up on the hill; I don’t think you’d be allowed to do this kind of thing today. I was looking along the track when I saw something dart out from behind a gorse bush.

It was a large black cat. It wasn’t the size that made my hair stand on end, but the way it prowled and stalked as it moved across the hill. After a few minutes watching, I moved nearer. The cat became aware of my presence and froze, glaring at me for intruding its space. Then it was gone, bounding off quickly down the hill and leaping over a granite hedge.

I walked down to see if there were any paw prints when, from behind a bush, a big, red-haired man leapt out at me.

“Yew, Pengelly,” he said. “See that cat, did ‘ee?”

Playing the Good Samaritan and selling some rabbits

47: August/September 2006

Cornish World is a magazine for people with Cornish interests and in essence belongs to those people. If anyone has any suggestions, criticisms, stories or pictures then please do not hesitate to contact me. I’m not going to go on about the new style Cornish World, I’ll let you read it and judge for yourself.

I went down to the An Gof Celebrations the other week and it was some ’ansome night. Plenty of people there all enjoying the speeches and the entertainment in the village hall later. It was a real community event and lots of people from the village joined in to put on a real show.

Cornish communities are good when it comes to putting on shows for others. It’s often when paid officials get involved to run events that things fall short of expectations.

I used to like our Methodist Sunday school harvest festival where we’d practice for what seemed like months to stage a little play based on a parable. I once had the part of playing the man who was robbed on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho in The Good Samaritan. I spent most of the time lying on the floor and my only lines were ‘help me’ and ‘thank you, kind sir’.

On what makes Cornish culture

46: summer 2006

I went to Flora Day this year, the same that I do every year without fail.

This year had an added significance, for I was very grateful to be invited to be the principle speaker at the Mayor’s luncheon in The Guildhall.

This is a huge honour as I was brought up in Helston and have danced the Flora eight times. The list of previous speakers reads like a roll call of the famous and titled in The Duchy.

It was a short, humorous speech (I hope) and I was nervous, such a room full of dignitaries would have probably heard more after dinner speakers than the Duke of Cornwall. I speak a fair bit in public and no matter how much I do it, I always suffer from a dizzy head and sweaty palms just before I stand up and speak. Maybe I should refrain from holding my breath in the minutes before my discourse.

45: On being a tight Cornishman

Issue 45, spring 2006

As each issue of Cornish World passes, I feel that the celebration of Cornish culture is getting stronger and prouder.

The St Piran events all over The Duchy (and indeed all over the world) most definitely get larger and more numerous each year as more people come forward to toast Cornish culture.

The annual march and play at Perranporth now attracts more than 2,000 patriotic Cornish, and members of parliament, councillors and religious leaders were present among the joyful throng.

The feeling at these events makes one feel wholesomely proud to be Cornish. I also feel that many of the Cornish groups are now opening dialogue with each other, planning events and agreeing on common goals; this can only further Cornish awareness even more. At the Cornish World office, I get telephone calls from telesales people in call centres far from Cornwall.

These calls always start off with something like: ‘Can I speak to the business owner, please?’ As soon as I hear these words, I check to see if my wallet is safe in my pocket and I then I begin to ask the questions.