Boscastle & St Juliot
On the north coast of Cornwall, this is the place where the young Hardy, in 1870, was sent to make drawings of the tiny church in preparation for its restoration. At the vicarage he was introduced to Emma Gifford who was later to become his wife. ‘A Pair of Blue Eyes’ was set in the area around Boscastle. Beeny Cliff was a favourite haunt of the courting couple and it is thought that Elfride Swancourt was loosely based on Emma as a young woman.
They toured this wild countryside together visiting Tintagel and the Valency valley where it is said that during a picnic a tumbler was dropped into a waterfall on the Valency river and carried away beyond recall They would often sketch upon Beeny Cliff whist admiring the stupendous view.
Hardy wrote many poems about his time here with Emma, some very emotional and evocative of the happy times they shared
O The opal and the sapphire of that wandering western sea,
And the woman riding high above with bright hair flapping free -
The woman whom I loved so, and who loyally loved me.
And the woman riding high above with bright hair flapping free -
The woman whom I loved so, and who loyally loved me.
………….
What if still in chasmal beauty looms that wild weird western shore,
The woman now is - elsewhere - whom the ambling pony bore,
And nor knows nor cares for Beeny, and will laugh there nevermore .
The woman now is -
And nor knows nor cares for Beeny, and will laugh there nevermore
The harbour at Boscastle. The village suffered a devastating flood in the summer of 2004 which destroyed many of the shops and buildings along the stream.