Cornwall arts and culture from genius loci

COMING HOME AGAIN by Clies Stevens

Do you know the very best thing about leaving my Cornwall?

It is the coming back!  I have in recent years driven home, the car proving faster, cheaper and more convenient than trains or the coach. There is a stretch of road on the border (yes border) where the road crosses the Tamar, the ancient border of our land with England. On one side it says

" WELCOME TO CORNWALL" and on the outward side the sign is

" YOU ARE NOW LEAVING CORNWALL"

Just ordinary road signs really, black letters on a white background the last time I saw them. But OH, the connotations that go with them. Outward was all the old mixed feelings of going to a new adventure somewhere, and leaving the homeland behind with all the familiar heartache that involves.

I have hitchhiked out of the county, and stood in what I reckoned was the exact middle of that bridge at three am, summer time and a beautiful night full of stars on a dark road. I listened for what must have been an hour to the sounds of the country, the water rustling and chuckling under the bridge and not a breeze or a cloud to break the spell of powerful nature all around me.

I remember that night because that was the week of my 23^rd birthday, I was going to London to take ship, working my way to South America for a while looking for I never really knew what, excitement perhaps, who knows I was just going somewhere again, like countless other cousin Jacks and jennies before me and since. Ever an outward looking race the Cornish, we travel to learn about the world I think, and when we come home! Then you learn what being Cornish is all about because even the grass is different to us.

The land welcomes its sons and daughters back, embraces all those who love the land itself for the way it is and gives us peace again. Sometimes it is a strange thing this being Cornish, until you learn about it that is. To all who want shelter, a place of peace for the inner soul and outer mind I say just a simple phrase that my Father said to me.

"WELCOME HOME MY SON"