Thomas Hardy: At Castle Boterel

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New Road, Boscastle, Cornnwall, ca. 1895: photochrome print by Photoglob Zürich, between 1890 and 1910; image by trialsanderrors (Library of Congress)

As I drive to the junction of lane and highway,
   And the drizzle bedrenches the waggonette,
I look behind at the fading byway,
   And see on its slope, now glistening wet,
         Distinctly yet

Myself and a girlish form benighted
   In dry March weather. We climb the road
Beside a chaise. We had just alighted
   To ease the sturdy pony’s load
         When he sighed and slowed.

What we did as we climbed, and what we talked of
   Matters not much, nor to what it led, ―
Something that life will not be balked of
   Without rude reason till hope is dead,
         And feeling fled.

It filled but a minute. But was there ever
   A time of such quality, since or before,
In that hill’s story ? To one mind never,
   Though it has been climbed, foot-swift, foot-sore,
         By thousands more.

Primaeval rocks form the road’s steep border,
   And much have they faced there, first and last,
Of the transitory in Earth’s long order;
   But what they record in colour and cast
         Is—that we two passed.

And to me, though Time’s unflinching rigour,
   In mindless rote, has ruled from sight
The substance now, one phantom figure
   Remains on the slope, as when that night
         Saw us alight.
 
I look and see it there, shrinking, shrinking,
   I look back at it amid the rain
For the very last time; for my sand is sinking,
   And I shall traverse old love’s domain
         Never again.

Thomas Hardy: At Castle Boterel, March 1913, from Poems of 1912-13, in Satires of Circumstance, Lyrics and Reveries (1914)

In Boscastle (Kastell Boterel), Cornwall: photo by Dietrich Krieger, 25 May 2010

Boscastle from Penally Hill. The centre of Bascastle viewed from the coast path on Penally Hill photo by Phillip Halling, 29 September 2009

Boscastle: the village from Penally Point. A view up the Valency valley from the west: photo by Chris Downer, 25 August 2009

Boscastle. Looking down on Boscastle from the coast path above the harbour: photo by Tony Atkin, 7 September 2009

Boscastle. From Penally Point: photo by Rob Taylor, 24 July 2003



Merlin's Cave viewed from Barras Nose. With the bridge across to Tintagel Castle to the left: photo by Trevor Rickard, September 1986



Barras Nose. Barras Nose is one of the many promontories on this coastline: photo by Tony Atkin, 7 September 2009

Quartz on the cliff, Boscastle. The quartz is found as veins in the slate, and occasionally in what appear to be large chunks, but in some cases at least there is only a veneer of quartz over the slate. In effect, these are exposed veins: photo by Humphrey Bolton, 7 May 2009

 Rock formations. Rock formations on headland above Boscastle Harbour: photo by David Ashcroft, 4 August 2006

Rocky Valley mouth. Looking north where the little gorge carved through the slate meets the sea. The coast path crosses here, but it is possible to take the path on the left for a closer look out to sea: photo by Trevor Rickard, September 1986

Boscastle harbour and landscape, Cornwall: photo by JUwel, 14 April 2004