MYSTICAL GEOGRAPHIES of CORNWALL Carl Phillips Thesis Submitted to the University of Nottingham for the Degree of Doctor of Phil
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MYSTICAL GEOGRAPHIES OF CORNWALL Carl Phillips Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy July 2006 Approximate word count: 99,600 words (including Bibliography) i Abstract This thesis seeks to contribute to a cultural and historical geography of the mystical through a detailed case study of Cornwall since the mid-nineteenth century. In doing so, it also aims to contribute to a contemporary Cornish Studies literature that has begun to reclaim alternative and forgotten cultural and historical narratives of Cornwall. After a short introduction, chapter two positions this thesis in relation to debates around the region as a unit of geographical inquiry and the mystical as a cultural and historical category. It also positions this thesis in relation to the contemporary Cornish Studies literature; while chapter three engages with debates around the use of archives, interviews and oral histories as research methodologies. Chapter four argues that the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Celtic-Cornish Revival was connected to a new and somewhat exploratory version of the mystical that drew upon Anglo-Catholic history and theology in the new Diocese of Truro and in the Cornish landscape, but that was also characterised by a certain degree of slippage beyond the discursive boundaries of Celtic Christianity. The mid-twentieth century, chapter five argues, was characterised by a series of strategies to normalise this earlier version of the mystical by engaging with, and actively incorporating, other and potentially contradictory versions of the mystical, and by grounding this more inclusive version of the mystical in a new, decentralised and more populist institutional context. In turn, chapter six argues that the later twentieth century was characterised by the emergence of another new and more exploratory cultural formation of the mystical through a particular culture of landscape that was underpinned by the supposed rediscovery of the principles of megalithic science and an associated revival of Paganism among other new social and religious movements. Chapter seven, in conclusion, reflects upon the often understated connections between the mystical and a sense of socio-spatial order, the problematic nature of knowledge, and the consequences of bringing together the mystical, the geographical and the Cornish in the context of this thesis and of existing and future work on the geographies of religion and spirituality. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank, first and foremost, Prof. David Matless and Prof. Charles Watkins, who provided advice and constructive criticism throughout my entire postgraduate research project. Thanks must also go to the staff of the Morrab Library, in Penzance; the Cornish Studies Library, in Redruth; and the Courtney Library at the Royal Institution of Cornwall, and the Cornwall Record Office, both in Truro; without whom my research would have much more time-consuming and ultimately less rewarding. Last, but by no means least, I would like to thank Philip and Meg Carr and their family, who put me up / put up with me during several research visits to Cornwall. iii List of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgements iii List of Contents iv List of Figures viii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Myths and Megaliths 1 1.2 Mystical Geographies of Cornwall: Back Story 4 1.3 Thesis Structure 7 2 The Mystical, the Regional and the Cornish 10 2.1 Cornwall and the Regional Imagination 10 2.1.1. Alternative Regional Imaginations 11 2.1.2 A Question of Scale 15 2.2 Theorising the Mystical 16 2.2.1 Historicising the Mystical 17 2.2.2 Sociologising the Mystical 21 2.2.3 Spatialising the Mystical 24 2.3 Cultures of the Mystical 30 2.3.1 Geographies of Religion and Spirituality 30 2.3.2 Romantic Nature-Mysticism 33 2.3.2.i Celtic Romanticism 35 2.3.3 Spiritualism and Occultism 38 2.3.4 Paganism and New Age Mysticism 41 2.3.4.i Paganism 41 2.3.4.ii Modern Pagan Witchcraft and Druidism 42 2.3.4.iii New Age Mysticism 43 iv 2.4 Cornish Studies 46 2.4.1 Cornwall in Cornish Studies 47 2.4.2 Cultures of the Mystical in Cornish Studies 53 2.4.2.i Orthodox Religion 53 2.4.2.ii Romantic Nature-Mysticism 56 2.4.2.iii Paganism and New Age Mysticism 58 3 Methodology 60 3.1 The Mystical and the Archive 61 3.2 The Mystical and Oral History 67 3.3 The Mystical in the Field 71 4 Twilight or Dawn? Mystical Geographies of the Celtic- Cornish Revival, c.1860-1914 76 4.1 Introduction 76 4.2 Anglo-Catholicism and the Celtic-Cornish Revival 78 4.2.1 ‘I saw, not with my eyes, but with my whole body’: Robert Stephen Hawker and the Celtic-Cornish Revival 78 4.2.2 ‘A Sacramental Act’: Anglo-Catholicism, the Diocese of Truro and the Celtic-Cornish Revival 84 4.2.3 Being Correctly Mystical: Anglo-Catholicism and the Moral Geographies of Antiquarianism 96 4.2.4 ‘The Question of Questions’: Anglo-Catholicism, Spiritualism and the Celtic-Cornish Society 104 4.3 The Cornish Landscape and the Celtic-Cornish Revival 111 4.3.1 ‘Land of Holy Wells and Ancient Crosses’: The Fabric of the Cornish Landscape 111 4.3.2. Stone Circles and Druids in the Celtic-Cornish Landscape 123 4.4 Folklore and the Celtic-Cornish Revival 136 4.4.1 Performing the Parish: The Cornish Folklorist and the Cornish Folk 136 v 4.4.2 A ‘Mystic Message to the World’: Henry Jenner, W. Y. Evans- Wentz and the Fairy-Faith in Celtic Cornwall 143 4.5 Conclusion 155 5 Gathering the Fragments: Mystical Geographies of Mid- Twentieth Century Cornwall 157 5.1 Introduction 157 5.2 Anglo-Catholicism and the Old Cornwall Movement 158 5.2.1 ‘Gather ye the Fragments’: Folk Religion and the Cornish Folk 161 5.2.2 ‘How rapidly the storm has come upon us’: Archaeology, Tourism and the Landscape of Old Cornwall 181 5.3 Legend Land: King Arthur in Mid-Twentieth Century Cornwall 195 5.3.1 The Return of the King?: Christianity, Arthurianism, Neo- Paganism and the Gorsedd of Cornwall 197 5.3.2 The Fellowship of the King: Tintagel and the Fount of Chivalry 207 5.4 ‘Brethren of the Common Table’: Anglo-Catholicism and Christian Socialism 220 5.5 Conclusion 228 6 ‘The Archaeology of Consciousness’: Mystical Geographies of Late Twentieth Century Cornwall 231 6.1 Introduction 231 6.2 ‘Land-Under-Wave’: The Mystical Geographies of Ithell Colquhoun’s Cornwall 234 6.3 ‘The Geography of the Unseen World’: Alternative Archaeology in Late Twentieth-Century Cornwall 241 6.3.1 Sacred Geometry: Lines in the Landscape 244 6.3.2 ‘Some sort of sympathetic interchange’: Fieldwork as Pilgrimage 259 6.3.3 ‘A Higher Orthodoxy’: Land Ownership, Rights of Access and the Mystical Geographies of Late Twentieth-Century Cornwall 272 vi 6.3.4 ‘The Past and the Post-Modern Challenge’: Academic and Alternative Archaeology in Late Twentieth-Century Cornwall 281 6.4 Cornish Studies and the Reterritorialisation of Cornwall 293 6.4.1 ‘A “Gospel” of Defeat’?: Cornish Studies, Political Nationalism and Celtic Mythology 294 6.4.2 ‘The Legendary Heritage of Cornwall’: Local Government, Landscape Management and Cornish Folklore 304 6.5 Conclusion 320 7 Conclusion 322 Archival Sources 328 Interviews 329 Bibliography 330 vii List of Figures 1.1 A Picture of Britain – VisitBritain tourist map, 2005 (Source: Visit Britain website, http://www.visitengland.com/campaigns/maps/ pictureofbritain, site accessed 16 June 2005) 2 4.1 R. S. Hawker [1803-75], 1870 (Source: Brendon 2002, figure 18) 80 4.2 Hawker’s Hut, c.1975 (Source: Brendon 2002, figure 10) 80 4.3 Edward White Benson [1829-96], Bishop of Truro 1877-82 (Source: Diocese of Truro website, http://www.truro.anglican.org/ bgallery.htm, site accessed 25 March 2006) 83 4.4 November, from Cornish Church Kalendar, 1933 (Source: Doble et al 1933: 30-1) 83 4.5 Truro Cathedral, 2004 (Author’s photograph) 88 4.6 Foundation Stone, Truro Cathedral, 2004 (Author’s photograph) 88 4.7 Henry Jenner [1848-1934], Grand Bard of the Gorsedd of Cornwall, Boscawen-Ûn, 1928 (Source: Gorsedd of Cornwall website, http://www.gorsethkernow.org.uk/english/historical/ ejenner.htm, site accessed 10 September 2003) 90 4.8 Boscawen-Ûn Stone Circle, St Buryan, 2002 (Author’s photograph) 101 4.9 St Cuby’s Holy Well, Duloe, 2004 (Author’s photograph) 101 4.10 L. C. R. Duncombe-Jewell [1866-1947], at the Pan-Celtic Congress, Cardiff, 1904 (Source: Deacon, Cole and Tregidga 2003, figure 1) 105 4.11 Sabine Baring-Gould [1834-1924], date unknown (Source: Musical Traditions website, http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/ b_gould1.htm, site accessed 25 March 2006) 112 viii 4.12 Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall, front cover, 1994 (Source: Quiller-Couch and Quiller-Couch 1994: front cover) 115 4.13 Madron Holy Well, 2004 (Author’s photograph) 115 4.14 Madron Holy Well Baptistery, from Ancient and Holy Wells of Cornwall, 1994 (Source: Quiller-Couch and Quiller-Couch 1994: 126) 116 4.15 The Altar, Madron Holy Well Baptistery, 2004 (Author’s photograph) 116 4.16 Subjects connected with the Crosses – Figure Sculpture, from Old Cornish Crosses, 1896 (Source: Langdon 1896: plate 8) 118 4.17 J. T. Blight [1835-1911], c.1864 (Source: Blight 2004: iv) 125 4.18 Parson Hawker at Dupath Well, from Ancient Crosses and Other Antiquities in the East of Cornwall, 1858 (Source: Blight 2004: 196) 127 4.19 Parson Hawker at St John’s Well, from Ancient Crosses and Other Antiquities in the East of Cornwall, 1858 (Source: Blight 2004: 181) 127 4.20 Lanyon Quoit, 2002 (Author’s photograph) 130 4.21 Lanyon Quoit, from A Week at the Land’s End, 1861 (Source: Blight 1989: 16) 130 4.22 Carn Brea, c.1895 (Source: Peter 1895: plate 1) 132 4.23 Trippet Stones, Bodmin Moor, from Ancient Crosses and Other Antiquities in the East of Cornwall, 1858 (Source: Blight 2004: 229) 132 4.24 Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer [1836-1920], date unknown (Source: Norman Lockyer Observatory website, http://www.projects.