The Scilly Isles

“Known variously as the Islands of the Blest, the Fortunate Isles, and the Islands of Flowers, the Scilly Isles have an individuality and charm all their own. Thrusting themselves up from the sea, only twenty-six miles from Land’s End, one experiences a sense of complete isolation from the bugbears and humdrum routine of modern life. Here one is free from the haste and bustle, the crowds and noise so often to be found on the mainland. Here the seas are more blue, the sands more white than on other shores. On the outer islands the postman’s daily call and the relentless regularity of the morningnewpapers are unknown, and the rocky uninhabited islets maintain their deep immemorial silence. Bananas and palms and other strange, tropical trees and shrubs grow freely in the open air. Though so close to Cornwall the people have no Cornish intonation in their speech. They are a community to themselves. It is impossible for them to go for a long walk in any one direction.
Lady Vyvyan is well qualified to write this book. Renowned as a writer on Cornish land- and sea-scape, she knows the neighbouring Scilly Islands intimately, and here writes with authority and with a vivid pen on their history, folk-lore, wild life, their industry, scenery and people.”